Well the Red Sox have the best record in the AL. They have the best bullpen ERA in baseball and they’re leading the majors in 2 out RBIs. Winning the ultimate goal and the Sox are having great success…but this is a boring team to watch.
With the best bullpen in the league they rarely blow leads. There are almost no back and forth lead changes because they don’t give up the lead. If the Sox are ahead late in the game they usually win. Paplebon has one blown save. So if the team goes into the 9th with a lead they’re on pace to win 95% of the time.
The bullpen is so strong that I’m waiting for teams to tell batters not to take pitches. I can just imagine the coach before the game, “Hey you guys we need to stay out of their bullpen. So keep the starter’s pitch count low. As soon as you see a ball you can hit, swing at it. Don’t be taking strikes. We want their starters in as long as possible.”
OK, maybe now that Beckett and Lester are on fire that approach won’t work. And let’s face it there is not strategy with Wakefield. If you get a pitch to hit, hit it.
On the flip side of keeping the lead… there have been very few end-of-game heroics. Nick Green had a walk-off homer and Youk had one early in the season against the Yankees. So if Sox are losing at the end of the game they’re not that likely to put together a dramatic rally…at least not so far.
Didn’t it seem like it wasn’t that long ago that Big Papi had a walk-off RBI once a week or so? More during the playoffs…this year that hasn’t happened.
So the Sox are good, they’re winning, they have very few holes and their boring. It’s the opposite of a basketball game where you can watch the last 5 minutes and enjoy the drama. For the Sox this season, you can watch the first 6 innings and then go mow the lawn. The results over the last 3 innings don’t seem to change the outcome.
Can we at least have a realistic trade rumor, a contract dispute or a disgruntled player to liven things up a bit? Maybe it’ll all change in the second half, or for the playoffs. It’s been a very good season so far, Go Sox…yawn!
You needed excitement… Was the bullpen blowing a 10 to 1 advantage over Baltimore enough excitement?