Red Sox-Orioles Series Thoughts: EW!
The Boston Red Sox have completed their first series of the season against the Baltimore Orioles. It wasn’t a pretty opening series for the local nine. The Baltimore Orioles swept the Boston Red Sox out of Fenway Park with an 11-3 victory on Sunday afternoon. This is the first time since 1948 that the Red Sox have started 0-3 with a home series. It doesn’t get any easier as the Red Sox welcome the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays to town on Monday. But before we transition to the Rays series, let’s get out some thoughts on the Orioles series.
Where is the Offense?!
Slow Red Sox starts:
Verdugo: 0-for-11
Bogaerts: 1-for-11
Kiké: 1-for-9
Dalbec: 0-for-8— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) April 4, 2021
I mean, those numbers for those four hitters are just flat out horrible! 2 for 39 combined between four guys? That’s unacceptable!
Alex Verdugo is 0 for 11 to start the year. He’s had a few good swings. But for the most part, his approach looks very passive and falling behind in counts a lot. Xander Bogaerts hasn’t looked very comfortable in the batters box either. He’s supposed to be your cleanup hitter to knock in runs, when they get on base. Kike Hernandez? You’re the leadoff hitter. You need to be the table setter and find ways on base. 1 for 9 and 0 for your last 8 isn’t going to do it in the leadoff hole. Bobby Dalbec? People are saying he can be the AL Rookie of the Year! He’s another one that doesn’t look comfortable at all these first three games. These guys have to start producing.
You can’t score 5 runs in 3 games. Are you serious with that? This is an offense that is supposed to be a top offense in baseball. How well is that going for everyone involved? Get runners on, and get them in, period.
JD Martinez Looks Good
JD Martinez – Boston Red Sox (1)pic.twitter.com/AY91jZxLWf
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) April 4, 2021
JD Martinez looks very good at the plate so far in 2021. His swing looks more like his 2018 self. He hit his first homerun on Sunday. Other than JD, there aren’t a lot of guys that are impressive at the plate so far. This is concerning considering how well they were hitting the ball in Spring Training.
The Schedule Gets Tougher
Like I said before, the Red Sox welcome the Rays to Fenway starting Monday, with a three game set. Then they have Baltimore in Baltimore, followed by the Twins, White Sox, and Blue Jays. The road doesn’t get any easier for this Red Sox team. Hopefully, this schedule doesn’t come back to bite them once May rolls around.
In Conclusion
Tough start to the season. This team hopefully will turn it around. But when you get swept by the Orioles at home, that’s a huge problem. It’s only three games, that’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s starting to feel like 2020 again. No consistency across the board in order to be a winning ball club. Hoping the Rays series doesn’t go as horribly. Otherwise, we could be talking about moving to 2022 already!
–Al Nahigian (@BigAl2793)
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Feat. Image courtesy of bostonglobe.com/