Well the season so far has been pretty sick. And sadly, I don’t mean sick like Chris Sale’s slider. It’s no fun dealing with the flu, and the amount of Red Sox that have had to deal with it so far this season is just awful. Let’s go down the list quickly of Red Sox that have been affected in one way or another by this flu bug: Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez, Joe Kelly, Robbie Ross, Mitch Moreland, Brock Holt and Andrew Benintendi. Benintendi has not had to sit out a game yet, but apparently was throwing up in the clubhouse during the sixth inning of Saturday’s game. That’s not the end of this bug either, it has also spread to third base coach Brian Butterfield, manager John Farrell and even play by play announcer Dave O’ Brian who had to leave the booth in the middle of the game on Saturday because of the illness. Going along with that, Xander Bogaerts and Matt Barnes are both on the bereavement list, so things haven’t looked great early on.
But in spite of that, I’m a pretty positive guy so I want to look at the lighter side of what’s going on. Mookie is back with the team today, along with Robbie Ross and Joe Kelly. Xander is going to be back on Monday and Barnes is back with them today, Hanley will be back on Tuesday. So the flu is on its way out the door. Drew Pomeranz will be starting on Tuesday, so the injuries are starting to pass. David Price is throwing a bullpen session on Monday, so he’s starting to work his way back too. Tyler Thornburg is starting his throwing program on Monday as well, and quite frankly I’m excited to see him pitch. Also, I’m kind of happy that this happened the way it did for the Sox because every team has to deal with something like this every year, and I would much rather have the team be decimated now than in August during the playoff push.
Now that I got all the optimism out of the way, let’s look at some of the true positives from the first week. Chris Sale was outstanding, and he truly lived up to the hype. Going along with that, he truly looked like he wanted to pitch here in Boston. I missed this, but multiple people mentioned to me that after his only walk of the day, he was yelling at himself on the mound, which is just such a good sign as weird as it may sound. I take this to mean that he wants to be here, and he wants to win. While personally, I try my best to never show any emotion when pitching unless it’s positive, but for a guy like Sale who was as disgruntled as he was in Chicago, it’s a great sign. Also, Pablo Sandoval hit a home run!! While he’s made two errors early on, I’m still excited for the Panda this year. The most promising sign was when he ran out an error yesterday. He popped the ball up into right field, but Mikie Mathook lost the ball in the sun and it ended up falling in, but the best part of it was when the replay showed Sandoval doing nothing but hustling to get to 2nd base. It seems like a small thing, but considering what’s gone on during the first two years of the Panda in Boston, I take this as a huge step up, and I’m very excited for the season.
