Finding hope for the Red Sox amid Boston's dreadful 2-8 start

Do you know how bad the Boston Red Sox have to be for me to publish a freak-out column on consecutive days? 

After an 8-6 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, the Red Sox are now 2-8, holding the undisputed worst record in Major (and Minor) League Baseball and putting on some of the flattest, least. entertaining sports performances of the decade on a daily basis. Errors are flying off the presses like free t-shirts at a career fair; Boston has committed the second-most errors in baseball during the Alex Cora era and added two more to that tally on Monday, including another awful throw from Roman Anthony.

Pitchers are walking in runs like we’re organizing a charity food drive for an alien race that only eats runs in Major League Baseball. “Sell the team” chants are hitting on consecutive days like the worst two-night concert series you’ve ever seen. I am going to run out of metaphors before this team wins another baseball game.

It would not be hyperbole to say the vibes have hit rock bottom, but with 152 games remaining, there is plenty of time to climb up or have someone toss us a rock hammer and continue digging to create brand-new, deeper-than-ever rock bottoms. Still, this is a team that many had pegged as AL contenders just a couple of weeks ago, and that means there's also enough time to turn things around.

The Red Sox statistically cannot continue to be this bad

Hope lies in the spreadsheets. Statistically, this team is not as bad as they have been playing. Boston is not going to bat .230 for an entire season; that would be the worst mark in the history of the franchise. Garrett Crochet and Ranger Suarez are better pitchers than they have been so far. On-base percentages will stabilize, and opponent hard-hit rates will decrease. It simply will not be this bad the whole season, or a fairly expensive baseball team will go 32-130. The Red Sox are, however, on pace for 176 errors this season, which would be the most in franchise history since … World War II, so there’s also that. 

The uber-positive reading of this start is that it is simply a very poorly timed mathematical outlier. There was a lot of positivity coming into this Red Sox season, and to start out 2-8 was never going to fly in a city as uncompromising with their sports teams as Boston. I was present for last night’s meltdown against the Brewers, and you could have told me that the Red Sox had just traded Roman Anthony for cash considerations and inked a stadium deal to move the team to Omaha — it was dark.

Perhaps most fans are overdoing it. The bats broke out against Brandon Woodruff, and Brayan Bello had what should've been a solid start ruined by some truly awful batted-ball luck. But most fans do not read the spreadsheets required to understand that this is probably a statistical anomaly. Most fans just … watch baseball games, and you cannot have watched any Red Sox baseball this year and come away feeling good about how the team looks.

Routine infield assists feel like root canals; Caleb Durbin and Trevor Story look unplayable at times. Red Sox pitchers can’t find the strike zone, and when they do, the ball finds the parking lot. There are mental errors, plays that can only be explained by the yips and a lineup that doesn’t inspire fear in any opposing pitcher. 

This will get better, because this team is better than this. What we’re dealing with now is a question of how many games can you lose before it gets better? If the Red Sox are a .500 team after starting out 5-20, that’s the season. You don’t get these games back just because they’re in April.

Much of this criticism is entirely reactive. Save for predictable issues with hitting for power, the Red Sox lineup was above average coming into the year, with the pitching staff looking legitimately elite. It hasn’t been, but I don’t want to say “I knew this would happen,” like some armchair GM; I didn’t know this would happen. Nobody did. That’s why we’re all so upset about it.

Boston needs to find their confidence and improve morale

But I’m here to provide hope, so here’s my blueprint for Red Sox success this season: Win two games in a row, preferably the next two at home. This team isn’t waiting on some major players to come off IL or to be promoted from a rehab assignment, so step one to fixing this is upping morale for a team that looks like their lives are flashing before their eyes. That starts with two wins in a row, which is the only thing that can rejuvenate energy and confidence in a sport that is primarily energy and confidence. 

Because for all the spreadsheets that tell you this will get better, the Red Sox hitters have to step into the batter’s box with their own fans booing and they have to believe they can hit. When you’re facing a pitcher throwing 98 mph, your approach will only get you a chance. You have to have confidence in your swing, your eye, your arm and your teammates. To regain that, Boston needs to win two games in a row. That is Doctor Fox’s official diagnosis and prescription. Panic columns will continue until morale improves.