Sox Surprisingly Solid

Monday, April 08, 2013

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalWorcester Sports Edtor

We are only one week into the 2013 baseball season, but the early returns look promising for the Boston Red Sox.

After an embarrassing 2012 campaign that saw them win only 69 games, most picked the Sox to finish last in the American League East once again this year.

But, after six games, Boston leads the way in the division with a 4-2 record after Sunday’s 13-0 pounding of the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.

It is far too premature to suggest that the Sox will remain on top in the division race or that they will even contend for a playoff spot this year, but the signs are good which means this team should be competitive all season long.

The most important part of Boston’s good start to the season is the performance of the starting rotation, particularly ace Jon Lester.

After yesterday’s 7-inning performance of 5-hit, shutout baseball, Lester is now 2-0 on the year and looking every bit like the stud he was when John Farrell was his pitching coach in Boston a few years ago.

But that’s not all, the team’s #2 starter Clay Buchholz also looked very strong in his 2013 debut at Yankee Stadium. If he can parlay that with another start today in Boston’s home-opener at Fenway (vs. Baltimore 2:05pm), you have to believe that he might be primed for a solid season on the mound as well.

Maybe the most surprising thing about the team’s start has been the solid production of a line-up that not much was expected from before the season began.

Whether it was Will Middlebrooks’ three homeruns yesterday or the shocking team-leading .529 batting average from light-hitting shortstop Jose Iglesias, the Sox have received production pretty much from one through nine in the order thus far. And, keep in mind, this is a line-up that does not yet have its most prolific slugger (David Ortiz) in the middle of it.

What’s also refreshing is the fact that it seems quite clear that there is a better atmosphere in the clubhouse from what was here the past couple of seasons. Part of that has to do with new manager John Farrell who has the respect of the players that predecessor Bobby Valentine didn’t. Even more important than that, it appears that the organization did a good job of ridding itself of the “bad apples.”

John Farrell

While Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett are all off to decent starts with the Los Angeles Dodgers this season, it seems very clear that moving those players to LA was addition by subtraction for the Red Sox.

Boston has played two best-of-three series thus far and has won them both on the road. And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that if you win more series than you lose, you will be in the hunt for, at the very least, a Wild Card spot come September.

Yes, it’s still very early in this 2013 baseball season, but Red Sox Nation has and may very well continue to be pleasantly surprised by their team.