Red Sox Finally Hitting Their Stride

Red Sox DH David Ortiz

With last night’s 2-0 win at the Tampa Bay Rays, the Boston Red Sox continued their hot streak.  Over the last 12 games, the Red Sox have gone on an 8-4 run against some of the best teams in Major League Baseball.  Despite losing their series at Detroit May 14-16, they have split a two game set at the New York Yankees, beat the Minnesota Twins in a two-game sweep, taken 2 of 33 from the defending NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies, and now taken two of the first 3 at Tampa, which at point this season has looked unbeatable. 

With that being stated, the Red Sox are still 6.5 games in back of Tampa, but are only 3 games behind the Yankees in the loss column for the early Wild Card lead.  Despite all the inconsistency that has plagued the club up until this point, the ship seems to be righting itself, as David Ortiz has awaken from a comatose April to post a .359 batting average, 8 home runs and 21 RBI in the month of May. 

If the Red Sox can stay consistent, they can fatten up their record in the next two weeks, as they face Kansas City and Oakland at Fenway and travel to Baltimore and Cleveland.  All of these teams currently have losing records except for Oakland, who currently stand at .500 with a 23-23 record.  The Sox need to take advantage of this part of the schedule to make serious headway in the division.   

Ortiz’ resurgence combined with the apparent ascension of Clay Buchholz as well as Jon Lester shaking off his perennial early-season struggles have been the prime reason for the marked improvement.  They continue to hit the ball well, as they are second in the AL in home runs behind the surprising Toronto Blue Jays, who have belted 79.

They should be able to move out 4^th place in the division and past the Blue Jays, whose free swinging ways will surely catch up to them.  Although they are smashing the ball out of the park at an alarming rate, one would believe that their offensive success will eventually tail off.  They are hitting .243 as a team, and their on-base Percentage of .309 is currently the worst in the American League.

The Blue Jays have changed their ways over the last year or so, exchanging their old philosophy of working pitch counts for one of “see the ball, hit the ball” for lack of a better term.  Of all the AL East teams, they have played the least divisional games, and have faced a much weaker chedule than the Sox. Yanks and Rays up until this point. 

With Mike Cameron now healthy and active, the defense should dramatically improve in the outfield.  Although Jeremy Hermida has been an adequate replacement at the plate, his defense has been atrocious at times.  The jury is still out on exactly what Jacoby Ellsbury’s condition is, so we may see more of the Hermida/Darnell McDonald/Bill Hall pupu platter in the outfield than was to be expected at this point.

The Red Sox seem to be getting healthy and hot just at the right time.  Their series wins over the Twins, Phillies, and Rays should boost the confidence of a club that was struggling mightily just a month ago.  It may not be such a long hot summer after all.

Tagged as: AL East, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Jon Lester, Mike Cameron, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, NL, Philadelphia Philles, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays