Summer romance is a sure bet with these Red Sox
COMMENTARY
This is better than you could have imagined.
There is an argument to be had that, especially after the last two seasons of doltish decisions and lifeless atmosphere at Fenway Park, it wouldn’t take much. Even a decent start to the 2016 season would surely alert even sheepish Red Sox fans thirsting for the signs and promises of a summer with a baseball season to care about.
That’s simply not the case.
If anything, these Red Sox inspired enough doubt heading into spring training after a load of recent failure that the stigma surrounding the team suggested it was ripe for a complete collapse. The starting pitching was suspect beyond its $217 million import, the third baseman was a balloon of ridicule, the first baseman was a cantankerous shoehorn solution at the position, and the manager was only a handful of missteps from receiving the rest of his paychecks on a beach somewhere.
It was going to take a little more than an early competitive nature to convince the lot that these Red Sox were something to get excited about, never mind that they might become a team worthy of any investment of devotion.
Yet, here we are.
Not even through the first two months of the season, the 2016 Boston Red Sox have proven to be a magnetic entity, a fascinating combination of players with a collective energy worthy of undivided attention.
If the Major League Baseball season ended today in some impromptu lockout, Red Sox fans could manage to walk away happy after what they’ve seen from the likes of Jackie Bradley, Jr., Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, David Oritz, Dustin Pedroia, Rick Porcello, Travis Shaw, Steven Wright, and, yes, Hanley Ramirez.
The homegrown youth of the team is compelling enough to qualify it as the most successful movement in the franchise’s history. The Ortiz retirement journey is more compelling with each signature moment. Bradley and his hitting streak are a daily appeal. Betts is morphing into the MVP candidate some suggested he might become. Bogaerts is turning into a right-handed Wade Boggs. Christian Vazquez has given a stability rarely noticed behind the plate in Boston.
We have no idea how good these Red Sox might end up being. Based on the product, it ultimately might not matter.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” Ortiz said after coming up a triple short of the cycle during his team’s 5-2 win over the Cleveland Indians Sunday afternoon.
Who isn’t?
Only the Chicago Cubs (29) have won more games than the 27-17 Red Sox, locked in a virtual tie for first place in the American League East with the Baltimore Orioles, who loom on the schedule in only a week’s time. On the verge of Memorial Day, there are fewer questions about whether or not it’s a success that can be maintained over the final four months of the season. Instead, we wonder how much better they can get.
After a rough stretch to begin his season, David Price has proven to be ace material. Joe Kelly returned from the disabled list with 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball on Saturday afternoon. Shaw hasn’t slowed down since reducing Pablo Sandoval to a punch line, even before season-ending surgery claimed the Panda. And notice nobody is fretting over closer Craig Kimbrel (hasn’t allowed an earned run since April 24) anymore?
The offense won’t slow down — especially at Fenway, where it has scored 167 of its 256 runs — and while the bullpen won’t remind anyone of Kansas City’s relief corps (particularly without Carson Smith…again), it has become one of the more dependable options in the American League.
Even the starting pitching, weighed down by the unpredictable morass that is Clay Buchholz every fifth day, has seemingly grasped onto some level of consistency, with Price, Wright, and Porcello all rebounding from recent hiccups that might swell the rotation ever so periodically.
In the midst of it all, manager John Farrell has backed into a level of job security. It was Farrell, after all, who said in spring training that this team reminded him a lot of the 2013 World Series champions, something it doesn’t resemble in the slightest. That team was built with veteran players on short leashes who admirably rallied around a city’s turmoil. This team is driven by the swagger of an electric youth that has intoxicated its elders.
But the 2013 team did win in spite of questionable tactics from its manager. So, maybe Farrell had that part in mind.
“Young, athletic, energetic players that are so in tune with what we’re trying to do as a unit,” Farrell said. “It is a powerful feeling, that when you get so many guys on the same page, moving in the same direction, you’ve got a potential for doing some special things.”
The Red Sox are on a current pace to win 99 games, but they get the Orioles six times over the next three weeks. The New York Yankees are suddenly out of last place (sorry, Toronto) and surging in the East. Eduardo Rodriguez may continue to be a lost cause with that knee injury, career catcher Blake Swihart seems to be a cork in left field to keep the dam from bursting, and the better everybody around him continues to be, the worse Buchholz’s struggles will be exaggerated.
It isn’t perfect, but nothing in baseball is.
It’s been long enough since we’ve had a summer romance with baseball in New England that it’s impossible not to be enthralled with these Red Sox.
It’s been pretty easy to fall in love with this team.
Easier than you could have possibly imagined.
History of great Red Sox rookies
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