Results matter most, but the 2024 Red Sox do have their share of flaws.
Nonetheless, as the Red Sox return home from a season-opening 10-game road trip to Seattle, Oakland and Anaheim, they sport a 7-3 record that translates into a nifty .700 winning percentage, a figure that places them ahead of all but five teams in major league baseball. Will we take it? Of course. And pending free agent manager Alex Cora will celebrate that as much as anyone given what the Sox have deteriorated into over the last few seasons.
“It was a great road trip,” Cora told reporters yesterday after the Sox’ 12-2 pounding of the (wannabe) Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim). “Going into the season, we recognized how challenging it is to come to the West Coast right away. The organization did everything possible to put these guys in a situation where they were going to be fresh and ready to go. Credit to [the players]. They did an outstanding job.”
So there you go.
Tomorrow’s home opener will be a reason to celebrate, after all.
Yah, Mazz, so what’s the %$*&!@! problem? No problem – at least not yet. Let’s just call them observations that have been pretty apparent and could become issues as time goes. The major league season, as we all know, is very, very long and will feature thousands of pitches, plays and situations. Nobody gets them all right. But there are always patterns and tendencies that bear watching, particularly with a roster that already has suffered some injuries (Trevor Story, Lucas Giolito, Vaughn Grissom) and was hardly awe-inspiring to begin with. So when we saw the Red Sox still have their share of flaws – and the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers do, too – that is merely a statement of fact and reality of life for each of the 30 major league teams.
But here are some things to keep an eye on:
The defense is still shaky
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 28: Enmanuel Valdez #47 of the Boston Red Sox throws to first base for a double play against Jorge Polanco #7 of the Seattle Mariners during the first inning of Opening Day game at T-Mobile Park on March 28, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
Lament all you want about the simplistic nature of traditional metrics, but errors are still errors. The Red Sox have eight of them, which is tied for the fourth-most in baseball. More importantly, they have come at costly times. Wilyer Abreu had a sloppy outfield misplay in Seattle that was a key element in one of the Sox’ three losses. Ditto for Rafael Devers’ misplay with two outs in the sixth innings of the Sox’ eventual 2-1 loss on Saturday night. (The Sox led 1-0 at the time.) While the Sox have allowed a major league low 24 runs thus far, a whopping nine of them (37.5 percent) have been unearned. (Ceddanne Rafaela, of all people, dropped a routine fly on Friday that helped lead to four of them.) Yes, the Sox are better afield. But if the A’s and Angels were good teams, the Sox might have two more losses at least.
The Sox are whiffing like crazy
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 03: Masataka Yoshida #7 of the Boston Red Sox walks back to the dugout after striking out against the Oakland Athletics in the ninth inning at Oakland Coliseum on April 3, 2024 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
If you’ve watched any Sox game this season, you’re likely to have seen a lot of strikeouts. From the pitching perspective, this has been a pleasant surprising. From the hitting perspective, it’s starting to get worrisome. Red Sox batters right now have the third-most strikeouts in baseball, which obviously flies in the face of Alex Cora’s mantra to put the ball in play. Triston Casas leads the Sox with 12 strikeouts, but there are low-contact hitters splattered throughout the Sox lineup. (Jarren Duran is batting .349 but has 11 strikeouts.) With a man on third and less than two outs – when contact is critical – the Sox are 2-for-20 with eight strikeouts. That won’t hurt too much against teams like the A’s and Angels. It will when the opponents are better.
