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: