The Boston Red Sox have the spotlight on them now with no other professional sports team playing in Boston. How will the Sox respond?
There’s no hiding the fact that not many people were paying attention to the Red Sox from April till about Wednesday of this past week. The disappointing start to the season for the Sox was hidden because of the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins in the playoffs.
More from Red Sox News
- Bizarre trade deadline comes back to haunt Red Sox after Nathan Eovaldi departure
- Red Sox’ Moneyball-style offseason continues with Corey Kluber contract
- Rich Hill’s Red Sox departure puts him within striking distance of unique MLB record
- Red Sox offseason takes another nasty hit with Nathan Eovaldi departure
- Why Red Sox fans should be rooting for Carlos Correa’s Mets deal to go through
The Celtics were eliminated in May and the Bruins season came to an end on Wednesday night so now all of the attention falls on the 39-34 Red Sox who are currently 5.5 games out of first place. The Sox have the spotlight now being the only team in town playing and it’ll be interesting to see if they can turn their season around and make a run.
The early part of the season was very disappointing for them. They started the month of April at 12-14 with a win-loss percentage of .462. The hitting was off, pitching was off, and the bullpen was unreliable. It was like they won it all in October and didn’t turn the page to 2019 and just stayed in 2018.
It caught up with them and they found themselves almost in the basement at the early part of the year. In May they came around a little bit and got better finishing 16-11 with a .593 win-loss percentage. Michael Chavis got called up from Pawtucket and really shined in the big leagues early giving the Sox some hope that their season wasn’t over.
So far in June the Sox are 10-6 with a win-loss percentage of .625 and hopefully, the wins go up. They have also struggled with the Yankees this season with a 1-4 record and a win-loss percentage of .200. The Yankees are a playoff team and the Sox need to beat them if they want a shot in the division.
They also need to beat Tampa Bay and Houston which with both teams the Sox have a losing record too. They are 2-4 against Houston with a win-loss percentage of .333. With the Rays, they are 4-5 with a .444 win-loss percentage. If they want a shot at a playoff run they need to beat those three potential playoff teams or their season will end early.
The Sox have had injuries to their pitching staff between Chris Sale, David Price, and Nathan Eovaldi. But with Sale and Price, the Sox weren’t winning games when they were taking the mound in the early part of the year. It was like the bats went silent and there would be no run support.
Nathan Eovaldi has had a setback in his recovery from his elbow injury but when he comes back hopefully he’ll be an asset to the rotation. However, if they want to have a chance at a playoff run they need to win when Price or Sale takes the mound.
It’ll also be interesting to see what President Of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski does at the trade deadline. They need to be buyers and get an arm in that bullpen that won’t cost them a game. They didn’t get bullpen help at last year’s deadline but this team is playing worse than last year. They need all the help they can get at this point.
With all the attention now on the Sox let’s see if they can have the summer they had a year ago. There’s no other professional sports team in Boston taking up all the attention now. We can only hope they make the necessary changes and have a great season and now that the lights are bright, they don’t crumble.