Red Sox and 3 more MLB teams primed to rebound after slow starts
By Tim Boyle
The Boston Red Sox and three other teams at .500 or below are primed to rebound from their slow starts to the 2022 season.
About a fourth of the season is completed for all MLB teams. Memorial Day is the unofficial point that many fans regard as the date on the calendar when the standings hold some importance. With the holiday approaching in another week and a half, it could be a time when Boston Red Sox fans either go into full panic mode or begin to believe this team has something left to prove.
The Red Sox are 16-22 in their first 38 games of the season. Expectations for them varied. Because of their ability to regularly compete, they were one of those clubs that at the very least would make a strong early push for a playoff spot.
Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the way things have gone.
The Red Sox are primed to rebound after a slow start
What has gone wrong for the Red Sox? For starters, their starters.
The team has been without Chris Sale all season long and minus their ace, they’ve been hoping for much more out of everyone else. The veteran trio of Nathan Eovaldi, Rich Hill, and Nick Pivetta have gone through good and bad stretches this year. At the moment, they look like middle-of-the-rotation starts with ERAs ranging from 3.90-4.32.
The team has gotten a surprisingly strong performance out of their relief corps yet this hardly makes up for their struggling offense. Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and J.D. Martinez are off to monster starts while just about everyone else has been playing well below even the most pessimistic of predictions.
However, with Trevor Story beginning to heat up, the Red Sox may need only one other player to join in on the action to become a lot more dangerous. The season is a long one and after a short spring, perhaps a couple of these guys just needed some at-bats.