![]() Not among those teams off to hot starts are the Boston Red Sox, who have limped to a record of 11-19 and who already sit 10.5 games back of the Yankees in the American League East. The Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Los Angeles Angels all sit atop their respective divisions and are among the best teams in baseball. One notable exception to that rule is the Boston Red Sox. That attitude has trickled down to the players, and it’s hard not to feel like this is a team ready to give up.The 2022 MLB season is a little over a month old, and a quick check of the standings shows the big-money teams are thriving. This starts with an ownership that has been content to coast on the fond memories of recent championships. Ultimately, the Red Sox cannot honestly tell themselves that they are fully committed to winning. A regression was to be expected, although no model could have predicted what we’ve seen in these last four games. Last year’s team overachieved – that’s what made it so fun for fans – but during the offseason, the Red Sox stood still as the rest of the division got better. It’s a sudden fall from grace, but not an unexpected one. Worse that that, they may part ways with their two best remaining homegrown hitters and start a self-inflicted extended rebuild. Now? The Red Sox have put together maybe the worst stretch in team history and the season is slipping away. While most fans were still unhappy about losing Betts, who had just helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win a World Series, there was a palpable sense of renewal after the bleakness and bad vibes of 2020. It was just last October that the Red Sox were facing the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, completing a wholly unexpected season-to-season turnaround. The fact that chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom’s previous tour of duty was with the notoriously frugal Tampa Bay Rays has done nothing to calm these fears. After the lingering emotional fallout from the indefensible Mookie Betts trade, there is a growing sense in New England that the team is simply not interested in paying either player’s next contract. ![]() Maybe, this time around, Henry and company will secretly be relieved to escape from the shackles of expectations.īeyond their current collapse, Sox fans are worried that the team seems curiously uninterested in negotiating with two of their All-Stars: Xander Bogaerts, who can opt out after this season and Rafael Devers, who is signed until the end of the 2023 season. This could very well change shortly, particularly considering that Sale is potentially out for the season. Since John Henry bought the team in 2002, the Red Sox have rarely been sellers at the trade deadline. As of Sunday morning, they are just a half-game above the last-placed Baltimore Orioles in the AL East (and 16.5 behind the Yankee and while a playoff spot is within reach from a mathematical standpoint, the Sox have done little to suggest they deserve one. The 2 August MLB trade deadline is fast approaching and there is no way that they can contemplate being buyers. Meanwhile, Boston have yet to win a series against anybody in their own division. Even when they were winning games earlier in the season, mostly against less formidable opponents, they had a knack of turning what should have been relatively painless victories into stressful nail-biters. After Saturday’s comparatively drama-free loss, they have won just five of their last 19 games.īoston’s July implosion is not some unforeseen event. Perhaps the Red Sox will take some comfort in that fact, but they probably shouldn’t. In mitigation, one of those losses to the Yankees was an impromptu bullpen game necessitated by starting pitcher Chris Sale suffering a freak hand injury after getting hit by a comebacker. By losing Friday’s game by such a wide margin, the Red Sox managed to put together the worst three-game run differential in MLB since 1900.ĭorktown: Red Sox! /Wz0hQfRQCb- Secret Base July 23, 2022 In their last two games before the All-Star break, the Red Sox lost to their old rivals the New York Yankees 14-1 and 13-2. However, there is no mercy rule in Major League Baseball, so the Red Sox had to keep throwing pitchers out there to toss batting practice to a relentless Toronto lineup. That one inexplicable play gave Toronto a 10-0 lead and effectively ended any suspense left in the game. The result was one of the rarest of baseball oddities: an inside-the-park grand slam. Instead, outfielder Jarren Duran completely misjudged it, allowed the ball to drop and then inexplicably stood still for a moment while the Jays ran the bases. The defining moment of the game and, barring a turnaround, the Red Sox’ season, came with the bases loaded in the third inning when Toronto’s Raimel Tapia hit what should have been an inning-ending flyball. Raimel Tapia INSIDE-THE-PARK GRAND SLAM! /7DQz5jlL2S- Talkin’ Baseball July 23, 2022
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