Sports Q: Does anyone still believe the Red Sox will make the playoffs?
Discuss the team's chances of salvaging the season with Chad and other Sox fans.
Welcome to Boston.com’s Sports Q, our daily conversation, initiated by you and moderated by Chad Finn, about a compelling topic in Boston sports. Here’s how it works: You submit questions to Chad through Twitter, Facebook, and email. He’ll pick one each weekday to answer, then we’ll take the discussion to the comments. Chad will stop by several times per day to navigate. But you drive the conversation.
Does anyone still believe the Red Sox will make the playoffs? It’s more than that they’re 5.5 games out in the wild card. They’re five games back of the A’s and just a half-game ahead of the Rangers, and neither of them would make the playoffs at the moment either. They can beat up on the Royals all they want, but it already feels like a lost cause. – Dennis G.
Maybe I’m trying hard to recreate what is yet to be created, but … I still think they’re going to make it. That’s probably only something a fool would believe at this point given the pattern of this season, which basically looks like this: brutal start, a bunch of attempts to recover that 2018 magic that always seem to fall short in an ugly way just when you’re starting to believe they’re back.
The pitching – the starters even more than the bullpen – have let them down this season. David Price has been brutal lately, Chris Sale has been weird all season, and Rick Porcello … well, he pitched OK against the Royals, and that felt like a huge victory. But if they can just be competent – and their histories and salaries suggest they should be much more than that – the offense can carry this team through the last seven weeks of the regular season.
I think they can catch the Rays, though they play them just four more times, in a Sept. 20-23 series in St. Petersburg. They need to demonstrate right now that they’re going to be in the hunt for a playoff berth – as of Tuesday, only five of their next 22 games are against teams with a winning record (they do have seven in that stretch against the .500 Angels). I still think they can do it and they will make the playoffs, though so far they’ve only made anyone that puts faith in them look like a fool.
What does everyone else think? Does anyone still believe the Red Sox will make the playoffs? I’ll hear you in the comments.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com