Mixed Results From Sox

            After last Friday’s 12-5 loss to the Angels, it looked as though the Red Sox had hit rock bottom. Nothing was working for the club. In the three games prior to that loss, the pitching staff had limited opposing offenses to just 8 total runs, but the so-called “lethal” Red Sox offense was only able deliver a win in one of those games. However, in the typical fashion of a Boston sports team, just when their backs were up against the wall, the Sox clicked a switch, and came through with two excellent wins over the Angels.

            On Saturday, starting pitcher Stephen Wright delivered the Sox a gem, tossing just 75 pitches over 6.1 innings of work in his club’s 8-3 win. This was great to see for the Red Sox. Wright didn’t have a whole lot of experience pitching at Fenway prior to that game, and to pitch as well as he did on national TV in front of a big Saturday night crowd is an excellent sign of things to come for the young knuckleballer.

            The offense consisted mostly of one guy: Mike Napoli. Nap struggled mightily through the month of April, hitting .162 with just one homer, but broke out of his slump in a huge way this weekend, launching four homers, including the farthest hit ball at Fenway all season. It was painful to see Napoli struggle the way he did through the first month of the season, but I think it was worth the wait. When he’s hot the way he is right now, he is as dangerous as any power hitter in baseball.

            It’s been hard to predict exactly where the Red Sox struggles would be this year. Prior to the season, everyone, including myself, said that this year’s club was going to score a lot of runs, but the pitching staff would struggle. To start the season, that proved to be true, and the Sox pitching staff had their fair share of problems. However, in May, the pitching hasn’t been the problem. Sox starters have had eight quality starts in their last 10 games, and Boston’s pitchers have posted a 2.94 ERA since May 13^th, which is the seventh lowest mark in the MLB over that span of time. But just as the pitching staff started to click, it became the offense’s turn to struggle.  The Sox’s offense has averaged just 2.7 runs per game in May, and has been held to two or fewer runs in 13 of their 21 games in May. Those numbers are simply unacceptable for this team.

            It’s been quite clear that this team struggles against left handers, and it hasn’t helped them that they’ve faced lefty starters in eight out of their last 13 games. But that’s still no excuse for their struggles.

            Even left fielder Hanley Ramirez, who crushed the ball in April, has had a rough time as of late. He hasn’t recorded an RBI in any of his last 17 games. That’s a bat that the Sox need to have producing in the middle of the lineup.

            With all of that said, though, the Sox’s struggles still haven’t been enough to bury them deep down at the bottom of the division. The American League East, formerly known as the best division in baseball, is terrible this year. Basically, if you win eight out of ten, you are going to move up to one or two in the division. The Yankees, who lost six straight going into this week, sit in second place in the division.

            In the most recent Baseball Prospectus playoff odds, the AL East division winner is projected to win just 84 games. Prior to about two years ago, it was almost a given that the AL East winner was going to have at least 90 wins. This is extremely fortunate for the Red Sox, because if they can get hot late in the season, they are going to be able to make a very serious playoff push.

Contact Jasper Goodman at jgoodman@radiovermont.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jasper_Goodman