Early Season Woes for the Boston Red Sox
The Fenway Faithful have really had to endure through a miserable first month plus of the season. This is a startling development because every media outlet and end-of-season projection had the Red Sox either in the new expanded postseason or at least contending for a place in it. The main reason for this is due to the offense and bullpen having been below league average and that is putting it mildly. According to MLB.com, the Red Sox are in the bottom ten (out of thirty teams) in several hitting categories including; batting average (21st), on-base percentage (29th), slugging percentage (23rd), OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) (26th), home runs (25th), and runs scored (24th). Seeing the object of baseball is to score more runs than your opponent, it is hard to win games when you have scored more runs than only six other teams.
The bullpen of the Red Sox has not helped the team too much either. According to MLB.com, the relievers of the Red Sox are sporting the seventh worst earned run average in the majors. Another big problem this bullpen faces is the inability to close out ball games. The Red Sox have saved only five out of a total of fourteen opportunities, which is a league worst thirty-six save percentage. Two members that really stand out as really needing to step it up for the Sox would be last year’s closer Matt Barnes, and prized free agent signing Trevor Story. Currently, Barnes is 0-3 with an earned run average of 7.84 standing at the third worst on team. Last year, Barnes had an earned run average which was less than half at 3.79. If Barnes can get back into his 2021 form the Red Sox would have a legitimate closer for the rest of this season.
According to a Sports Illustrated article by Nick Selbe, Trevor Story was signed to a six-year contract worth 140 million dollars. This was after a 2021 where he hit .251 with twenty-four home runs and was the face of the Colorado Rockies. However, this year has been horrendous for Trevor and it looks like he committed grand larceny against the Red Sox by hitting a dismal .198 with zero dingers to his name. Not to mention, he has struck out thirty-five times which is the most on the Red Sox and tied for eleventh most in the whole league. There has been one bright spot for the Red Sox this year and it has been there starting pitching, which should give the Fenway Faithful some hope that their beloved Red Sox can turn this season around, after-all this team still has one of the more talented lineups in baseball. They just need things to start falling their way a little bit more.