Time For Sox to Put Up or Shut Up!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
There’s one more game with Texas today at Fenway and then it’s “put up, or shut up” time for the Boston Red Sox. They will play 20 of their next 27 games away from home. That stretch will decide whether this team will be playing meaningful games in September or simply play out the string.
We can look back at this season and divide it into three distinctly different segments. The first part wasn’t so good.
As is the case every spring, the team entered the season with high hopes as did Red Sox fans. But the month of April and the first half of May was a disappointment. Boston struggled out of the gates playing below .500 baseball falling as many as 8 ½ games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
Leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury suffered a rib injury sending him to the sidelines. David Ortiz looked like an old, washed up slugger whose bat was too slow. And staff ace Josh Beckett was horrible for some unexplained reason.
Then the team headed on a big road trip where they would play the NL and AL East leaders in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. This is where the team found its mojo and suddenly took off.
Late May and all of June was very productive for the Sox. David Ortiz had suddenly discovered the fountain of youth, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz both pitched like top of the rotation aces and Adrian Beltre made all of Boston forget about Mike Lowell.
The 8 ½ game deficit was erased and the Sox were now battling the Yankees for first in the division race. But then the injuries started to pile up.
Josh Beckett had already gone to the DL but the team was getting by fine without him. Then, in a matter of days, Dustin Pedroia broke his foot, Clay Buchholz pulled his hamstring, Victor Martinez broke his thumb and Jason Varitek broke his foot. This sent the team into a tail spin.
Boston limped into the All Star break which couldn’t come fast enough for the team. Heading into play Saturday, the Sox had slipped to 7 games behind the Yankees in the loss column and 4 behind Tampa in the battle for the division and wild card respectively.
They have resumed play following the break in very much the same manner. But all of that doesn’t matter now. How they played in the past is insignificant. It is what they do now over this difficult 27-game stretch that may determine their fate.
Clay Buchholz is set to join the Boston rotation in Oakland on Wednesday. Josh Beckett will also rejoin the rotation soon. Victor Martinez is taking batting practice from the left side of the plate but not the right because of the injured thumb while Dustin Pedroia will have to keep his broken foot in a boot for another two weeks.
The Sox play 3 at Oakland, 4 at Seattle and 3 in Anaheim. They return to Fenway briefly for 3 against Detroit and 4 with Cleveland before heading out for another 10 games starting with 4 at Yankee Stadium. They will then head to Toronto for 3 and Texas for 3.
At the end of this stretch we will know whether the 2010 Boston Red Sox are going to be contenders or pretenders. Whether September in New England will be about a pennant race and the Patriots or football only.
Here’s hoping it’s both.
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