Historically, the Boston Red Sox and panicking have gone hand in hand, but perhaps never before like this.
The shiny new toys in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford – and the rest of the offense – are garnering mixed reviews: from “ugh” to “ew” to “blecch”.
The supposedly stacked bullpen hasn’t gotten the chance to prove its billing, because by the time Terry Francona gets to the bullpen, even Bobby Jenks, Jonathan Papelbon, and Daniel Bard are relegated to mop-up roles.
Carl Crawford and the Red Sox haven't had much to smile about through the first five games.
The starting pitching is just staggering – for all the wrong reasons. Jon Lester had never given up three home runs in a game until Opening Day against the Rangers. Two days later Clay Buchholz outdid him by serving up four moon shots. The starters’ combined ERA through the first five games is 8.54.
Generally, the Red Sox have had to hit the panic button sometime after the All-Star break, when their division lead begins to evaporate into the hands of the Yankees. This time, however, with expectations so high from the start, it may be time to call the proverbial players-only meeting and figure out what the hell’s going on. At this point, Red Sox fans could care less about breaking every offensive record in the book. All that matters at this point is one freaking win in the first week of the season.
Now, some will argue that there’s no need to panic, because the 1998 Yankees started 0-4 and went on to 125 games between the regular season and playoffs. Fair, but to the average Red Sox fan you’re comparing Three Mile Island to Chernobyl. The Sawx have gone 0-5 against the defending American League champion Texas Rangers (minus Cliff Lee, which basically amounts to moving your iPhone from Verizon to AT&T) and the Cleveland Indians, a franchise that went from winning to losing faster than Charlie Sheen on a case of Red Bull and a vial of coke. Fake stand-up tour sold separately.
The Red Sox have one more game against the Indians to get it right before the home opener against the Evil Empire on Friday. If Mr. Clean (please tell me I’m not the only one who calls Terry Francona this) and company can right their ship in due time (and with the talent on the field and the brainpower in the front office that they have, you know they can), perhaps this start will be just a footnote in what could be a historic season for all the right reasons and not all the wrong ones. If the exact opposite happens, however… then what?
The baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, but the gun sounded a while ago, guys…
Samurai Sports 