Ugh.  What a gross start to the season.

 

I pride myself on being able to not over react to a series or a stretch of bad baseball - although brutal to watch, it happens to all teams. This reminds me too much of LAST April however, back when the Sox were still healthy, and watching them literally throw away games.  This feels worse - because they are so much better on paper - but Aprils not over yet.  Let's hope they snap out of it before the month is over.

 

Note to Terry F.:  Hit Crawford Fifth, and stop moving the guys around.

 

But I digress.

 

Last April was brutal.  Remember the 5 blown saves?  How about the .259 batting average for the month of April?  THE ERRORS.  Remember the guys were healthy in April.  The injuries didn't start till May.  The injuries were clearly apart of the August the Sox had last year, where they batted less than .259.  But all the other months were better - even when they had the skeleton crew out there in July and September.

 

This April will take a miracle to save.  They are all pressing.  I don't see how that's going to improve with the cheers  at Fenway and the Yanks in town - the pressure to perform is going to be crazy.  Losing the games to Texas was no biggy.  Texas is good.  Their team is designed for that ballpark and they are good.  Not so with Cleveland.  It certainly looked to me that the Cleveland pitchers were willing to be more aggressive and bet that the Sox wouldn't make them pay.  And you know what?  It worked.

 

The Sox were cocky, even brash with the media in Spring Training.  The problem with that?  The baseball gods are cruel.  And you can't hit eating humble pie.

 

Guess who has the second highest batting average at .231?  JD Drew.  Yikes.  On both counts.  The pitching I'm not totally surprised at.  Lester normally has a few bad games in April.  Beckett just got tired quickly, and Matsuka pitched OK (I think he will do well this year, call me nuts). Lackey is Lackluster, he eats innings and he's good at that.  Just don't expect a lot of low scoring games.  But the bullpen was really woeful too.

 

Let's hope they get hot against the Yanks.  Have to sooner or later.

 

 

Do Good Things Today!

 

 Matt Heisler