Don't Look Now, But the Red Sox Might be as Good as Advertised

I realize this is the Scenic City SportsBlog. I grew up here in Chattanooga, but the first Baseball team I ever followed was the Boston Red Sox. Oh, I've always liked the Braves, but didn't love them until a few years after we got Cable in seventh grade. By that time they were second fiddle to my beloved Red Sox. It was rough going early on. My first memory of the World Series was the one the Red Sox lost to the Big Red Machine. For my 18th b-day, I got Game 6 and a ball between Billy Buckner's legs. In the late '90s and early '00s, we were never really in the hunt. Then came 2003 and Aaron "Bleeping" Boone. Since that awful October, life has been pretty good being a member of Red Sox Nation. Although I must admit, I hate that phrase, and it does seem that Boston now has just as many obnoxious fans as the hated Yankees. Still two rings in the last few years feels pretty good.

Even with all this recent success, this offseason seemed pretty bizarre. It was the Red Sox and NOT the Yankees that made the really monumental personnel moves. I was completely taken by surprise when the Red Sox announced the Adrian Gonzalez trade merely a few days after signing mega-Free Agent, Carl Crawford. I mean, I was happy with CC. Going in to the offseason, I figured the Red Sox would make a run at Jason Werth and Crawford, and if they failed to get one or the other, maybe the negotiations for Adrian would start up again. Remember, this was a real possibility last July, but the Padres suddenly found themselves in the midst of a pennant race and talks stalled. So the Red Sox scored two 140+ Million Dollar Men? It's not my money, so I was happy and suddenly anxiously anticipating Spring Training. I think at one point, I might have said, in all seriousness, that the Red Sox would win 105 games this year.

Now fast forward to the middle of April. Just a couple weeks into the season and the BoSox had less wins (2) then A.J. Burnett (3). Yikes! At least I could take solace that those two wins were against the hated Yanks. Our starting pitching was the pits, and only Pedroia and maybe AdGon was carrying his weight at the plate (Jed Lowrie still hadn't had very many at bats).

Today, however, on the same day another Boston team completed a more important sweep, the Red Sox won their fourth in row against Anaheim and fifth in a row overall, and have reeled off eight of their last nine! Sadly, they are still one game under .500, but only 3.5 games out of first place. This has all come about largely due to pitching.

John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matzuzaka (who all woefully underperformed last year and in their first starts this year) have all put together outstanding back-to-back starts. The Red Sox starters ERA over the last nine games is a microscopic 0.88!

And what about the two big offseason acquisitions? As most of you well know, Crawford has not gotten off to a good start. He hit his first home run today and is sitting at an anemic .171/.218/.244 line. Gonzalez is off to a better start with a line of .282/.358/.412, but that was buoyed by a 3 for 5 day today. The rest of the club? Only Jed Lowrie is hitting over .300. This was supposed to be a team that was going to score 900+ runs this year!

My point? Those bats aren't going to stay cold forever. The Red Sox will have to go 96-45 over the rest of the season to prove my 105 prediction correct. If those bats start to heat up, I might be right afterall.