These Red Sox keep finding new ways to be worse
COMMENTARY
For those of you who still take solace in the fact that the Red Sox — as putridly awful as they have been through 55 games — are only 5 1/2 games out of first place in the pathetic American League East, you get a stay of execution for the next 10 days.
Here come the Oakland A’s, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays.
Stink. Stank. Stunk.
Get ready for some bad baseball, with four of the six teams with the worst records in the AL stinking up NESN’s airwaves. The A’s come to Fenway this weekend, sporting a league-worst 23-33 mark, followed by a quick jaunt to Baltimore, where the 24-29 Orioles await, then it’s back to Fenway next weekend for the 25-30 Jays. The Red Sox, now 24-31 following Thursday’s mind-numbing breakdown against the Minnesota Twins, are a combined 8-8 so far this season against their completion for the next week-plus. That’s a wildly admirable mark followed by what occurred this past week.
What started with such promise when Clay Buchholz and Eduardo Rodriguez pitched the Sox to back-to-back wins with, arguably, Boston’s two best pitching gems of the season, landed with a thud on Thursday, an 8-4 loss to Minnesota that vies for “worst loss of the season’’ contention, a status for which it has plenty of competition. The “nimble’’ Pablo Sandoval (are the Red Sox beat writers still trying to decree “unflattering’’ photo angles of the fat Panda now?), who’s turned out to be a $95 million version of Craig Grebeck, has been a disaster in the field. Hitting .239 after a, ho-hum, 0-for-4 day, Sandoval air-mailed a throw to first base in the sixth inning, leading to a Twins run, then mishandled catcher Blake Swihart’s throw on a bunt attempt by Joe Mauer in the ninth that led to the go-ahead run. It just went sort of downhill from there.
Team owner John Henry hasn’t given up on the season, insisting that they’ve done the projections and — eureka! — the Red Sox are indeed still worth your time, effort and, ahem, money. But can Carmine crunch the numbers on the mental mistakes that theses Red Sox seem to display on a nightly basis? Where does third base coach Brian Butterfield waving in Mike Napoli in a scene out of “Major League’’ compute in the front office’s expectation file? How about Hanley Ramirez forgetting how many outs there are? No? Didn’t work that one into the statistical vomit that argued his bat was worth his defensive incompetence?
The Red Sox ultimately turned what seemed it might be a 4-0, feel-good win into a dreadful, 8-4 loss, rolling over for dead in the bottom of the ninth inning, after the Twins plated a quartet in the top of the frame.
Pathetic.
And yet…
And yet, “they’re only 5 1/2 out in the division’’ those who apparently haven’t watched a moment of this team’s ineptitude over the past two-plus months will rightfully say. “There’s still plenty of hope.’’
Fine. The Red Sox have nine games to prove they can stay afloat in this thing. But if they falter here, can we all just agree that this is a plundering mess for the third time in the past four seasons?
After losses like Thursday, it’s becoming more evident that this team has given up, checked out with more than 100 games remaining on the 2015 schedule. Sandoval, Ramirez, and David Ortiz were supposed to be the heart and soul of this Red Sox resurgence. Instead, Sandoval already has the stench of Carl Crawford to him, wondering why he made such a mistake when he was so comfortable in San Francisco. Ramirez has come as advertised though — a confounding malcontent, while Ortiz seems resigned to the fact that his career has fallen off a cliff at the age of 39.
Calling all Kids to Fenway.
But what’s accountability when your team owner is humming “Lego Movie’’ theme songs while admitting his team has played like “bleep?’’ Manager John Farrell is safe, Henry announced this week, even as the pandering Farrell leads an excuse-ridden ride right back into last-place for a second-straight season. That World Series title seems like it might as well have been 86 years ago.
“That was a poor display of baseball today,’’ Farrell told reporters after the game on Thursday. “Those situations are addressed individually, they’re addressed collectively, and we’ll continue to do so.’’
Lee Elia he isn’t. Too bad. These losers could use a kick in the bleep.
Instead, we get votes of confidence and games like Thursday. Yuck.
But hey, the Red Sox have a chance with the A’s, Orioles, and Jays on the docket. If they can make it here, you still get to argue about striking distance in the division. OK? But if they don’t, well, get ready for an entire summer of deflated ball talk.
Nobody wants that. Nobody wants this.
The Red Sox have 10 days to figure it all out.
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