McCarthy: American League playoffs make Red Sox look worse by the day
By Matt McCarthy, 985TheSportsHub.com
If the Red Sox are watching what’s going on in the American League playoffs, I don’t know how they couldn’t be disgusted by what they see.
It isn’t pretty.
As the defending World Series champions sit at home, the group of inferior Junior Circuit teams that actually qualified for the postseason are getting exposed on baseball’s biggest stage. Every night is a reminder of just how disappointing the 2019 Red Sox were. It makes them look worse by the day.
It is astonishing that the Sox couldn’t find a way to get into the playoffs given the quality of the competition around them. A seventh place finish in this American League is shameful. It proves just how bad the Sox were this year.
They couldn’t beat these teams? What a joke.
Apr 2, 2019; Oakland, CA, USA; Boston Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. (19) reacts after striking out during the seventh inning against the Oakland Athletics at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Athletics, who finished 13 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card standings, were unsurprisingly and unceremoniously dismissed from October before it even began. They were trounced on their home field in the play-in game by the Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the lowest payroll in baseball.
The Red Sox spent $176 million more than the Rays and managed to finish 12 games behind them. Meanwhile, the Rays are on the verge of being bounced by the Houston Astros. They just can’t keep up with that juggernaut.
The Minnesota Twins, who were thoroughly dismantled and embarrassed in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees, won 17 more games than the Red Sox.
17.
Sure, the Twins played in a weaker division, but that doesn’t account for the 17-game difference between the two teams. Nothing does.
The gap between the contenders and the frauds in the American League is bigger than ever before. That much has been made clear in the last week.
If the Red Sox couldn’t even come close to matching the records of the Twins, A’s, and Rays, what does it say about them? At least the Twins, A’s, and Rays posed as contenders for a minute. The Red Sox never did.
We thought Red Sox season couldn’t get any worse once the season actually ended.
Wrong. Watching this postseason is only a reminder of just how bad it was.
You can hear Matt McCarthy on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s own Hardcore Baseball podcast and on various 98.5 The Sports Hub programs. Follow him on Twitter @MattMcCarthy985.
