Injuries has
now joined poor managing, lack of focus, and underperformance on the list of
things that have made the 2015 Red Sox season the painful-to-watch disaster
that it is.
Third
baseman Pablo Sandoval and catcher Blake Swihart both went down with injuries
over the weekend, digging the Red Sox’s hole to be even deeper, and adding two
more complicated problems to the already plagued 2015 Red Sox campaign.
Yes, the
Red Sox had a good weekend, taking two out of three from the defending AL
Champion Royals. But let’s face it, this team has had good weekends before, and
time and time again, they have continued to disappoint any fans who had any
sort of expectations at all for them. This season has turned into an
embarrassment for the Red Sox and their fans. They currently sit in last place
in the AL East, and are nine games out of first place.
It’s not so
much how bad they are, but more the way that they have handled how bad they
are. Whether it’s David Ortiz getting ejected for no reason, Wade Miley
throwing a hissy fit on his manager, or Pablo Sandoval going on Instagram in
the middle of a game, this team just doesn’t have the mental commitment to win
right now.
Off the
field, there are more than a handful of problems as well. In the dugout, we have
John Farrell, who has no clue how to manage a baseball game in a National
League ballpark. Upstairs in the front office, there is Ben Cherington, who has
epically failed three out of the four years that he has been General Manager of
the Red Sox at his job, which is to put together a winning baseball club, and
is currently driving this team even further into the ground. And sitting in the
luxurious owner’s box, being fanned by $100 bills, there is John Henry, who is
watching all of this happen, and yet still says, “The general manager (of the Red Sox) is going to be the general manager
of this club for a very long time.”
Let’s start with the on-field
problems. The Red Sox just aren’t scoring enough runs. It’s a given that the
pitching staff isn’t going to be fantastic, and that is entirely the fault of the
front office, but this team still should be winning games with scores like 6-5,
and scoring enough runs to make up for a mediocre rotation. Their team batting
average is .256, and they just aren’t getting the production out of the middle
of the order from the guys who they need to, notably Mike Napoli, who is
hitting just .203.
Mentally, they are even more of a
train-wreck. Things got to a boiling point for them in Saturday’s loss to Kansas
City. Two starters had to leave that
game due to injuries, and DH David Ortiz was ejected for arguing balls and
strikes. Ortiz’s ejection stood more for his overwhelming frustration with his
team’s performance, and for that matter his own performance, than it did for
his anger towards the umpire. I understand how frustrating baseball can be, but
at the same time, Ortiz let his team down by getting thrown out of that game.
At the point where he was tossed, it was a close game, and for all he knew,
having his bat could have been essential later on in that game.
At the helm of this team is John
Farrell. I don’t blame him for all that has happened, but at this point, he has
proven himself to be a poor in-game manager. In the fourth inning of last
Wednesday’s game in Atlanta, which is a National League ballpark, Farrell
proved that he can’t execute basic strategy, and blew the Sox’s 1-0 lead. There
was a runner on second with two outs in the inning, and the number eight
hitter, Pedro Ciriaco, was coming to the plate, with the pitcher on deck. Any
manager should know that with first base open you walk the number eight hitter
to face the pitcher and get the third out in the inning. Instead, Farrell chose
to pitch to Ciriaco, who made him pay by singling home the run.
Over the weekend Farrell again
proved his incompetence as an in-game manager after Blake Swihart doubled with
nobody out. Mookie Betts, who has been the Sox’s hottest hitter as of late,
came to the plate and was told to bunt Swihart over to third. He did so successfully, but it gave away an
out that shouldn’t have been given away after a leadoff double, especially with
Mookie Betts up.
I also blame Farrell for Wednesday
night’s incident when Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval was caught ‘liking’ an
attractive young woman’s photos on Instagram in the middle of a game. Farrell
needs to have control over his team, and if he wants to win, which right now it
doesn’t really seem like he does, he can’t have his starting third-baseman
working on his post-game social life in the middle of a game. It’s an
embarrassment.
Going forward, if they have to blow
up the team, this will be the third time in the last four years that they will
have done so. The blame for that lies on Ben Cherington, who doesn’t really
seem to have a plan for this club. Yes, they won the World Series in 2013, but
I’m starting to have questions about whether or not Cherington really has a
plan, or if he is just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what will
stick.
This week will be the Sox’s last
shot. I can’t see them turning this season around, but they have three straight
series against AL East teams, and if they can’t start winning now, the season
is as good as over.
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