Nine innings on the Red Sox so far
COMMENTARY
Playing nine innings while being grateful that Xander Bogaerts’s delayed flight isn’t the kind where passengers get re-accommodated …
- Six games, three wins, and three losses into the season, and it’s already gotten weird. Xander Bogaerts has two hits – or twice as many as Mookie Betts. Sandy Leon has more home runs – one – than Betts, Bogaerts, and Hanley Ramirez combined. The entire roster has as many home runs, three, as the Astros’ George Springer has leading off games. The flu has knocked at least five players out of commission at some point and led to the fumigation of at least two locker rooms in their wake. Two players have been placed on the bereavement list. Noe Ramirez and Ben Taylor have pitched more innings than David Price and Drew Pomeranz. Again: Weird. The Sox are coming home tomorrow to start a seven-game homestand, six against AL East teams. It’s time for the varsity to return to health and production. The Boston PawSox have grown tiresome.
- The small sample size warning label applies here, but right now this Red Sox team feels a little bit like the ’02 club. That was a Dan Duquette team, but it sure looked like a Dave Dombrowski team. It was stocked with superstars (Manny, Pedro, Nomar, newcomer Johnny Damon, 21-game winner Derek Lowe, and I’m counting 43-year-old Rickey Henderson here for pure entertainment value) but didn’t have a lot of quality depth (Shea Hillenbrand finished sixth on the roster in Wins Above Replacement, first baseman Tony Clark had a 47 adjusted OPS in 298 plate appearances, second baseman Rey Sanchez had a 75 OPS-plus in 386 PAs). That team won 93 games but finished six back of the Angels in the wild card race.
- Chris Sale must be looking forward to actually having that vaunted Red Sox offense he heard so much about backing him up. Shorthanded as they are, they’ve scored just four runs in his two starts – and just one run while he’s been in the game. But he’s been as advertised in his two starts, allowing 2 earned runs in 14.2 innings, with 2 walks, 17 strikeouts, and just 8 hits allowed. He ain’t Pedro, because no one is, but that wipeout slider is something to behold (at least when he doesn’t leave it over the plate to Ian Kinsler). He’s going to be unstoppable once the offense gets around to giving him something more than moderate support.
- For all of the issues that the Red Sox have dealt with so far, 1/27th of the way through the season, it does feel like they dodged a huge bullet with the Jackie Bradley Jr. injury even though he went on the 10-day disabled list Monday night. It didn’t look like much when he rounded first base and fell during Sunday’s game, but replay showed his right knee buckling inward. He looked like a running back paying the price for making a sharp cut on the Reliant Stadium turf. Bradley isn’t the Red Sox’ best player, but he’s a joy to watch in center field, and during the stretches when no one this side of vintage Pedro can get him out. It would have been a crushing disappointment to lose him for any length of time.
- Not quite sure what to make of Pablo Sandoval’s attempted redemption yet, but I think this is a case of so-far-so-good, right? He entered Monday’s game hitting just .150 with a .540 OPS, but that’s just a puny 20 at-bat sample, and the go-ahead three-run homer he hit Saturday should buy him a lot of leeway. He’s such a free swinger that he’s going to look bad sometimes even when he’s going good. I’m mildly encouraged, though he does need to scrape the rust off defensively.
- John Farrell gets blamed for a lot of things, some of which he actually deserves. But I can’t fault him for deciding not to go to Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning of the third game of the season, even with the Red Sox clinging to a one-run lead and the bases full. Farrell needs to find out what he has out there. Joe Kelly didn’t come through. A day later, Matt Barnes did. Some lessons are found in spring training, but March often lies. Now is the time to gather that intel on who is going to seize an opportunity and who is going wilt.
- My favorite former Maine Guides beat reporter, Steve Buckley, wrote an interesting column this week in the Herald on Dustin Pedroia’s Hall of Fame chances. My thought: He’s going to need to have Craig Biggio-like longevity – or at least continue to be productive and durable through the end of his current contract in 2021 – to have a real chance. He’s approaching 1,700 career hits, which is fewer than I expected. He’s already 24th all time among second basemen in WAR (50.9), but trails contemporaries Ian Kinsler (53.2), Robinson Cano (62.4), and Chase Utley (64.3), as well as some terrific players the Hall voters have already rejected such as Lou Whitaker (74.9), Bobby Grich (70.9) and Willie Randolph (65.5). Pedroia does have rookie of the year and MVP awards to his credit, and he’s associated with a winning high-profile team, which will help. But he’s still a couple of his typically excellent seasons away from having a real shot.
- Speaking of the Hall of Fame, despite beginning the season on the disabled list, Adrian Beltre is probably going to reach the 3,000-hit plateau sometime in June – he’s just 58 away. He is second among active players in WAR (90), trailing only Albert Pujols, and he’s 45th all-time, more than icons such as George Brett, Ken Griffey Jr., Nolan Ryan and Joe DiMaggio. In other words: He is a lock for first-ballot election, even if many fans and media didn’t realize he was building a Hall of Fame case until three or four years ago. Man, how I wish more than 189 of those hits had come as a member of the Red Sox.
- For the ninth inning here, let’s go with three quick outs: 1. Who knows what Andrew Benintendi will ultimately achieve. But when he’s not reminding us old timers of Fred Lynn, we’re marveling at how much his swing looks like Yaz’s. Check it out. 2. Marco Hernandez can play. Nice swing, capable shortstop. He should stick around when all of the regulars are back. 3. It’s still weird when the Red Sox get to the middle of the order and David Ortiz is nowhere to be found.
