YankeesRedSox.com

Over the last decade, the New York Yankees, on a few occasions, started a season flat and fell out of contention early on.  But they always righted the ship and made a 2nd half surge and ended up in the thick of it.

I'm sure hoping the Red Sox can do the same thing.  They are bad right now and every possible thing that can go wrong, is going wrong.  They are 19-20 and look totally dysfunctional.  They do have moments of good play, but then things come crashing back down.  Last night's game was a perfect parallel to how their season has gone.

For a starting rotation that was mentioned in the same breath as other great rotations, the Red Sox starters have posted a 4.99 ERA with a 1.442 WHIP.  Sure their starting catcher has a .623 OPS (a catcher known for his bat, not his defense), but it isn't the Red Sox offense that is the problem.

What happened to improved run-prevention?  We were all worried about scoring runs but so far that worry was misdirected as the Red Sox have scored 203 runs which puts them in 3rd place in MLB, behind the Yankees  - 219 and the Phillies - 212.  The Red Sox have allowed 212 runs which puts them 4th worst in baseball.

The defense has been suspect as evidenced by the play of Jeremy Hermida and Darnell MacDonald last night.  Both players combined to turned 3 outs into 3 extra-base hits.  MacDonald was there in time but booted it while Hermida might have looked to make a good effort, which he did, but he took the worst routes to the baseball.  Had he taken the best routes, or even mediocre routes, those would have been outs.

No matter, the inability to shut down other teams offenses is the problem right now.  I suppose if the offense can keep things up and the pitchers can learn to pitch, this team might be capable of a surge, but it doesn't look good.  I'm left scratching my head.