Boston Red Sox in Midst of June Swoon
The Boston Red Sox may have averted being swept by the Chicago White Sox but the month of June has not been kind to them in 2016.
A 8-7 extra innings victory over Chicago on Thursday, thanks to a walk-off RBI single by Xander Bogaerts, improved Boston’s record in June to 8-12.
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Luckily for the Red Sox, with one week to go in June, they aren’t really worse off then when they began the month. They are no longer in first, but since there isn’t a team in the AL East playing above average baseball as of now, the Red Sox find themselves only 1.5 games out of first (to the surprising Baltimore Orioles).
The normal culprit of Boston’s struggles, the plague of the past few seasons, continues to be the pitching staff. Many of the starters sleep walk through starts, while the bullpen likes to alternate between performances that are either dominating or horrendous.
Steven Wright has become the ace of the staff, if only because he is the most consistent of any Red Sox starter this season. Of his 14 starts, 12 have been quality. He is 8-4 with a 2.01 ERA–quality, all-star numbers–but one wonders how good this team would be if the team’s true ace (according to the payroll) was putting up similar numbers.
Jason, you say, David Price has the exact same record as Wright. He is also 8-4 and also has 109 strikeouts. How can he not be earning all that green?
Price also has an ERA of 4.24, a number that has come down considerably in the month of June. Yet, he has been matched up against other team’s aces, going 1-3 with an ERA of 2.32 in the month of June.
Of course, he is not the main concern. Other Boston pitchers are simply not living up to expectations. Or they might be living down to expectations, depending on what side of the “glass half empty/glass half full” argument you fall.
Clay Buchholz, Eduardo Rodriguez and Joe Kelly have all struggled. Kelly has had his moments, but Buchholz and Rodriguez are nowhere near the level they’ve pitched at in their careers. At least Rick Porcello, aside from a few spotty starts, seems to be enjoying a bounce back year.
Part of the gloom in June is thanks to a suddenly “slumping” offense. Scoring nearly six runs a game was not going to last forever and June was the month the drought hit. Runs per game have dropped over a run to 4.6 in the month of June, but there isn’t a huge worry about the drop-off. David Ortiz, Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley and Mookie Betts continue to enjoy career seasons and the Red Sox, for the most part, have remained relatively healthy.
I use the term drought very loosely, as the Red Sox have faced some pretty stellar pitching as of late. Boston has faced aces like Madison Bumgarner, Chris Tillman and Chris Sale as of late. Sale, with the White Sox falling further behind in the standings, might even be on the trade market (of which Boston figures to be a major player when the deadline approaches next month).
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One week of June remains. The clouds are starting to part, the heat of July and the dog days of August are on the horizon. If Price continues to pitch well, Porcello stays consistent and then one other pitcher steps up, the ship will be righted once again.
The first thing standing between them and July? Oh, just the Texas Rangers, the team with the best record in the American League. July can’t come soon enough.