Sports

Red Sox are still losing and taking longer to do it

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Over the last three days the Red Sox have played 39 innings of baseball. Which wouldn’t be so bad if those 39 innings were broken up into four games.  Instead Red Sox fans were treated to two extra inning games that bookended the three game series against the Baltimore Orioles.

Well, the games would have been real treats had they ended with Red Sox wins.  It took 13 innings on Friday night and 17 innings on Sunday for the Red Sox to finally give in and lose, which allowed the Orioles to sweep them at home.  This Sox had a six game home stand and one exactly one game, the first one on Monday against the Oakland A’s.

The Red Sox ended April at .500 and a week later sit with a record of 11-16.  Oddly enough, that terrible record, which puts them 7.5 games out of first place in the American League East, doesn’t even qualify as the worst record in Major League Baseball.  The Minnesota Twins win that title with their 7-20 record (and the San Diego Padres come in second at 9-20).

Other teams struggling to begin the 2012 season:

The Kansas City Royals (who just split a series with the 15-13 New York Yankees) are 9-18 only just having won their first two games at home during this Yankees series.  The Los Angeles Angels are 12-17 and the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates are both 12-16 while the Chicago Cubs are 11-17.

Out of the 30 clubs in MLB, 14 are playing below .500.  Unfortunately, the Red Sox are the only team in the AL East with that distinction and, right now, that’s all that matters.  On this day in 2011, the Red Sox were also in last place with a record of 14-19 (a .438 winning percentage as compared to today’s .407).  But that team wasn’t dealing with the injuries this one is.

There are currently 11 players on the disabled list (including major contributors Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Kevin Youkilis as well as starting pitchers John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka and relievers Bobby Jenks, Chris Carpenter and, now, Aaron Cook).  And this team still hasn’t shaken the ghosts of last September away and they won’t until they go on another significant winning streak (and, especially, start winning games at home).

Tonight is game four of a twenty game stretch without a day off.  They’ll be in Kansas City and given that team’s struggles will hopefully begin to snap out of whatever fog they seem to be in.

(Originally published on Examiner.com)