While passing a co-worker on the stairwell this morning, he looked at me, shook his head and said “How about those Red Sox?”
My response, which came out almost immediately, was “Well, at least we’ve got the Bruins.”
Wow, what a statement.
To think that the Boston Bruins are now the bright spot in an otherwise dreary spring on the Boston pro sports scene may very well be a sign that the apocalypse is finally upon us.
The Boston Red Sox, who were rebuilt with an eye on speed, defense, and pitching to win low-scoring games are losing low-, medium-, and high-scoring games because of shoddy defense, sub-par starting pitching, rotten relief pitching, and questionable managerial decisions.
Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics, although as healthy as they’ve been all season long, suddenly seem to lack a killer instinct. This veteran, experienced club is having as challenging a time closing out games as a Red Sox reliever.
Poor foul shooting, weak rebounding efforts, and offensive lapses leading to turnovers are haunting the Celtics in the final quarter. Even when Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett have All-Star caliber efforts, the games are still getting away. The latest example was Saturday night’s playoff game against Cleveland, an entirely winnable game on the road that the Celtics led almost throughout for the first three quarters.
That brings us to the Bruins, who seemingly have already scored as many goals in the playoffs as they did during the entire regular season.
Throw in the storybook return of Marc Savard and the scintillating net minding of goalie Tuukka Rask, and even the unfortunate, season-ending injury to forward Marco Sturm appears to be just another hurdle the Black-and-Gold will skate over, around or through, rather than a crippling blow.
Optimism always abounds — as does pessimism — among Boston sports fans, but when it’s centered on the Bruins — a franchise that hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1972 — well… it feels like the Twilight Zone.
The only thing missing is Rod Serling’s voiceover.
— Andrew Neff
Sox creeping toward ‘wait until next year’
So the Red Sox have played nearly one-sixth of their schedule.
Is that too early to draw any definitive conclusions — that save for the starting pitching staff, the team is just plain mediocre?
After suffering the humiliation of being swept by the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend, the Red Sox began Monday night’s action mired in fourth place – and closer to last-place Baltimore than first-place Tampa Bay.
The seven games by which the Red Sox trail the Devil Rays, and the 5½ games by which they trail the second-place New York Yankees, are by no means too much to overcome, particularly with 135 or so games remaining.
An indication of which direction the team is headed may come this week with back-to-back series against the Angels and Yankees.
At least most of the starting pitchers are starting to come around, with Jon Lester, John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz all coming off decent starts. As for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who knows?
The bullpen has generally been effective, too, though some crushing late-game losses have negated some of its better performances.
But a defense predicated on “run prevention” seems less than average, with errors too often leading to game-changing runs.
And the offense has struggled to find consistency, in large part because of the giant doughnut hole in the middle — David Ortiz. Ortiz may have bought himself a few more weeks with his two home runs Saturday night, but seemingly it is a matter of time before his Red Sox career is ended, unless, of course, he rebounds like he did last year after going deep into May before hitting his first homer.
The return of the injured Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron to the outfield will not be a panacea, and there are questions elsewhere, including at catcher, where opponents steal bases at will and Victor Martinez has not generated the confidence of his coaching staff as a long-term defensive answer.
Perhaps the largest question of all is whether the Red Sox front office will try to save this season by pursuing a big bat, or whether it’s wait until next year.
Red Sox Nation deserves the former, but the latter is more likely.
— Ernie Clark