Reading too much into how a baseball team performs at the beginning of the season is a small sin.
This crime is not on the level of overreach as, for example, national sports media airing the claims of a tweet by a Cardinals’ A-ball pitcher that Jon Lester cheated in game 1 of the World Series; after the Cardinals made Little League-esque gaffes like Pete Kozma booting a double play ball in the first inning, and neither Yadier Molina or Adam Wainwright being able to catch a lazy pop-up in the second inning. Journalists who reported on that story should have been watching the game instead of Twitter. But reading too much into how a team performs this early in the season would, I confess, make me guilty of the sin of overreach.
It’s not that the Red Sox don’t have problems worthy of complaining about. The search for a leadoff hitter leaves a hole at the top of the order that’s roughly the size of Bartolo Colon‘s waist. The legion of men left on base is large enough to topple a weak despotic government. And watching Red Sox hitters take the philosophy of working pitch counts too far by not swinging at strike 3 has been frustrating.
But let’s not think about this too much.
What matters is that the Red Sox are only 4-5, despite how they’ve played. For the rest of April, the only above .500 team the Red Sox will face is the Toronto Blue Jays – and how long will they be above .500? And the only team which made the Red Sox look silly was the Milwaukee Brewers, who just happen to be the hottest team in baseball right now – how long will their streak continue?
So the Red Sox have a shot to be above .500 by the end of the month. With the outfield running on fumes until Victorino returns, and Middlebrooks‘ injury weakening the lineup, that’s a pretty good situation to be in. And I’ll enjoy watching one pleasant surprise of 2014, Jackie Bradley Jr, make me eat every word I wrote about him a couple weeks ago while the Red Sox stay competitive throughout April and, hopefully, have a healthier team in May and for the rest of the season.
It’s better that the Red Sox experience the problems they’re having now than in August.
photo credit: getty images
