Xander Bogaerts on run for Ted Williams record

(Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY)

Eric D. Schabell
Contributing Writer

With just 14 regular season games to go the Red Sox are not really in contention for much.

It's been that way for awhile now.

There was the blip of excitement around cheering for David Ortiz to surpass the milestone of 500 career home runs, but he blew right through it inside of a few weeks and it faded into history quickly.

Now we have the potential tonight against the Rays to climb out of last place in the AL East, something of an achievement if you consider how bad the 2015 season has gone. Who knows, maybe the Red Sox could string together a few more wins and end up in third place for this division, which would not reflect how badly the season has gone.

Would you consider nine more wins a successful season ending at 80 wins?

What would you call it if they won 82 games?

Let's put that all aside for a bit and examine a feat that was put into the history books by Red Sox legend Ted Williams in 1940, the second year he was in the Majors. As an under-23 year old Williams put together a 193 hit season, something that is pretty extraordinary for such a young hitter in the Major Leagues, but one that is on the verge of being broken.

As noted by Peter Abraham, with just 14 regular season games to go in 2015 Xander Bogaerts, who is just over 22 years old, has 180 hits.

That is just 14 hits needed over the remaining 14 games for Bogaerts to cap off a great season by putting his name into the history books beyond the legendary Williams.


The watch is on.

Tonight we tune into every single at-bat by the young Red Sox shortstop Bogaerts and count down to that magical number of 194.

Oh, and if they win tonight, don't forget, the Red Sox would be out of last place in the AL East.

Post a comment or via twitter @erics_redsox with your thoughts.

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