Can the Red Sox still make the playoffs?
The Boston Red Sox would be the storied team of the year if they were even able to squeak into the playoffs. With the amount of injuries that they have suffered as a unit, it truly would be amazing if they even nabbed the wild card spot, much less win the division.
The Red Sox fortunes this year have been among the worst in baseball, but the team continues to show resilience and heart. Their never-say-die spirit is inspiring and the fact that they’re still in contention for a playoff spot speaks for itself.
The season has been a nightmare injury-wise as their disabled list has seen names like Jacoby Ellsbury, Josh Beckett, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Clay Buchholz, Mike Cameron, Mike Lowell, Jon Lester and so on. Their only kink non-injury related was David Ortiz’s miserable start to the season. He was likely weeks away from getting released after being benched by manager Terry Francona on several occasions before breaking out of his funk and catching fire in May.
The Red Sox have gotten some good play from Adrian Beltre, who leads the team in batting average and players who have come off the bench like Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald and Ryan Kalish. The Red Sox will need all the help they can get from these guys as outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and infielder Kevin Youkilis are done for the season. Their only chance of playing this year would be if the Red Sox made it into the playoffs.
Another reason for some of the Red Sox struggles has been inconsistent pitching. Granted there were some injuries, but Beckett, Lester and John Lackey have all shown signs of slumps, letting leads slip away at inopportune times and starting slowly in games. The bullpen may be the bigger problem though. Daniel Bard has been the star in relief duty. Jonathan Papelbon has been solid but not as dominant as Sox fans are used to seeing. He’s already blown six saves this season and the Red Sox are 5.5 games back in the division race, but it’s not fair to lay that all on Papelbon.
Yes, the team has been inconsistent and they’ve let too many easy wins slip out of their fingers. The fact is, injuries are what’s killed this team, or has almost killed this team. The Red Sox aren’t dead in the playoff race. Mathematically they’re very much alive with over a month of the season left to play. The thing they must realize is that they’ll have to take their push right to the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. Boston won’t be able to rely on the Yankees and Rays letting games slip because with teams of this calibre, that just doesn’t happen. The division or the wild card won’t be handed to the Sox. They’re going to have to snatch it from either the Rays or Yankees.
The only chance the Red Sox have of climbing back up in the race will be to snatch victories from the Rays and Yanks when they face them. It seems that whenever the Yankees and Rays do lose, the Sox fail to take advantage and lose games on the same day. They have six games left against the Rays and a three-game series with the Yankees on the final weekend of the season. These games will be the most critical if the Sox want to catch either team. With the way things are going now, it would likely come down to that final week of the season.
With Boston staying in contention, it shows how good a team they are and how tough they are to pin down. Lesser teams would have crumbled by this time but the Sox are still alive and their run at the postseason is still far from over. If they make the playoffs, no excuses can be made against them, they’ll have earned it.
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