Boston Red Sox: 3 stars of the 2019 MLB season’s first half

The All-Star break complete, the Boston Red Sox, including these three 1st-half stars, can now put their entire focus on the season’s second-half.

Blown leads, disappearing offense, and a lack of consistency have plagued the Boston Red Sox at various points so far in 2019. Looking for a cohesion — and perhaps a pitcher or two — will be the main goal in the season’s back nine.

Holes in the bullpen and rotation aside, the Red Sox are in good position to make a run to at the very least a wild card spot. Boston sits 2.5 games behind the leaders, the Tampa Bay Rays, and is two back of the Cleveland Indians for the second spot. The Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers are also in the mix, with A’s ahead of the Red Sox and the Rangers a mere game behind them.

Despite this sense of dread hanging in the air, Boston has played much better baseball since the start of May. They entered that month with a record of 13-17 and are a solid 36-24 since.

Boston still carries one of the best offenses in baseball. Certain elements have fallen off since 2018 but the Red Sox are still tied with at the tops of baseball with 509 runs scored.

J.D. Martinez (18 HR, 48 RBI, .304 BA) and Xander Bogaerts are having their usual stellar seasons at the plate. Bogaerts, who is hitting .294, leads the team in RBI (65) and doubles (29).

Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi have had their struggles, but here’s hoping a solid series to end the first-half of the season gave them a jolt. Betts was 7-13 with 3 RBI in three games against the Detroit Tigers and Benintendi was 5-10 in the last two.

Even with their struggles, others stepped up. Here are three players who were stars in the first half of 2019.