Close your eyes and think. Imagine a team with an offense scoring the second-most runs in the major leagues, having two players in the top three on the RBI leaders list, and three of the four players with the most doubles in the American League. Where do you think this team would be in the standings?
Third in the American League East Division is where the Boston Red Sox find themselves with these statistics. 122 games into the season, the Sox have 189 home runs, a team batting average of .274, a .818 team OPS, and a team total of 663 RBIs. All of these statistics are an improvement over the 2018 Red Sox, who won a team record 108 regular-season games and their ninth World Series title. With such a dominant offense, how could the team be sitting eight games behind the second wildcard spot, and already have lost more games than they did in the entire previous season?
PITCHING. President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski, decided not to upgrade the bullpen at the trade deadline but did bring in Andrew Cashner from the Baltimore Orioles. Cashner has an ERA over 8 and a WHIP of 1.92 since joining Boston and has been demoted to the bullpen.
The Red Sox pitching staff has a combined ERA of 4.83, a WHIP of 1.38, has given up 168 home runs and allowed 638 runs to score. Chris Sale who is considered to be one of the best pitchers in baseball is 6-11 on the season and has an ERA over four. Craig Kimbrel, the closer from last season, walked to the Chicago Cubs and was not replaced by Dombrowski. This season, the Red Sox have blown 22 saves in just 46 opportunities.
If you add just half of those blown saves into wins, the Red Sox would be firmly holding on to a wildcard spot, in a tight race with the Yankees for the AL East title.
The Red Sox rotation has the second-highest run support average per game in baseball, yet in the last 16 games, the team has won just four of them.
Just last night, Rafael Devers became the first player in MLB history to record a 6-6 night at the plate with four doubles. Devers and Xander Bogaerts are having MVP caliber seasons, yet this team might not even make the playoffs.
The World Series hangover might be real, but it is really a shame to watch so much talent go to waste. Oh, what could have, and SHOULD HAVE been for this team.
