Are the Sox for real?
If you are like me, you are ecstatic about the Red Sox turnaround from last year to this year. But, if you're like me, you're wondering "When will something start to go wrong?" I'm 22 and I've been a fan since the young age of 6 (or 7, I can never remember which), well before 2004 and 2007, so 2011 was nothing new for me. Still, I'm keeping it in the back of my head as I watch the Sox right now. I've witnessed several seasons where they started well, but ended up nearly missing out or completely missing out on playoff baseball. Because if we choke in September like in 2011, no one will remember that we started 20-11 at the beginning of the season, only that we choked in crunch time. Again. I am also aware that the Red Sox are 5 - 7 against teams in 1st or 2nd place in their divisions. And that is worrying to me. If we want to succeed, we have to play better against good teams, because those teams are who we'll need to beat on a consistent basis down the stretch.
But, enough of the gloom and doom stuff. Lets look at what is going right for a second. David Ortiz has a 25 game hitting streak since returning from injury. Clay Bucholz has yet to lose a start and looks like an early CY Young candidate. And the team in general has different, better look and feel in the chemistry department. Everyone is on the same page, which wasn't the case last year, hence the disaster of a season. This gives me a lot of hope going forward that we can make a postseason run. The Texas series showed us we still have a lot of room for improvement, but we also won't win every game we play this year. What the team can do is shake off a loss and come back play hard the next game. All in all, I'm pretty optimistic so far about our chances, but I'm basing that on what has happened so far, because I can't see the future, as much as I would like to sometimes. I will say that we need better pitching outside of Lester and Bucholz, because they can't carry us forever, as much as it seems like they do right now. They are not machines, and can't keep this pace up for a full 30 or so starts. Other than that, so far so good.
Twitter - @ConorJF1016
But, enough of the gloom and doom stuff. Lets look at what is going right for a second. David Ortiz has a 25 game hitting streak since returning from injury. Clay Bucholz has yet to lose a start and looks like an early CY Young candidate. And the team in general has different, better look and feel in the chemistry department. Everyone is on the same page, which wasn't the case last year, hence the disaster of a season. This gives me a lot of hope going forward that we can make a postseason run. The Texas series showed us we still have a lot of room for improvement, but we also won't win every game we play this year. What the team can do is shake off a loss and come back play hard the next game. All in all, I'm pretty optimistic so far about our chances, but I'm basing that on what has happened so far, because I can't see the future, as much as I would like to sometimes. I will say that we need better pitching outside of Lester and Bucholz, because they can't carry us forever, as much as it seems like they do right now. They are not machines, and can't keep this pace up for a full 30 or so starts. Other than that, so far so good.
Twitter - @ConorJF1016
