Is Friday night rock bottom for the 2019 Boston Red Sox? If not, things certainly went from bad to worse for the defending World Series champions.
The Red Sox were blown out in Friday's series opener at the Diamondbacks (ARI 15, BOS 8) to fall to 2-7 on the young season. The game was not as close as the final score would lead you believe. Boston scored some garbage time runs to make this one look more competitive than it actually was.
Rick Porcello became the latest Red Sox starter to get rocked, allowing seven runs and putting 13 runners on base in 4 2/3 innings. He has a 13.50 ERA.
Reliever Brian Johnson was charged with seven runs in 1 1/3 innings. Things got so bad the Red Sox had to use utility infielder Eduardo Nunez on the mound. He allowed a run in one inning.
This is how poorly things are going for the Red Sox in the early going this season:
They've lost seven times in a nine-game span for the first time since July 2016.They lost their seventh game on April 5. Last year they lost their seventh game on April 28.Boston's starters have a 9.60 ERA, worst by baseball by more than two full runs.They've allowed 23 homers in nine games. Last year they allowed their 23rd homer in their 26th game.At the conclusion of Friday's game, their minus-26 run differential was the worst in baseball by 12 runs.Yes, the Red Sox still have 153 games to play and a ton of talent. I wouldn't count them out yet. Not even close. These games do count though, and Boston has dug an early season hole. Their margin of error the rest of the way is much smaller. In fact, FanGraphs says their postseason odds have dropped from 90.3 percent on Opening Day to 69.8 percent on Friday. Yikes.
If you're expecting the Red Sox and manager Alex Cora to panic about their dreadful start, you couldn't be more wrong. They recognize there is a lot of season still to be played.
Alex Cora “I’m not going to change. I’ve been saying that all along.” Said Red Sox will hopefully look back at this when they get hot and say, “that wasn’t very fun.”
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) April 6, 2019
The Red Sox started the season with an 11-game West Coast road trip and I'm sure returning home to Fenway Park next week will do the team some good. They're going to receive their World Series rings on Tuesday and try to forget all about this road trip. Nothing they can do other than forget about it and try to be better moving forward.
