The Red Sox have started badly and we are talking about historically bad…

The team that reached game six of the American League Championship Series last season looks unrecognizable at the start of the 2022 campaign.

If before the start of the 2022 season, someone would have said that Boston Red Sox, one of the teams that went the furthest in the postseason and one of the best offenses overall in recent years, would be in last place as the 30-game mark approached, you’ve likely met with disbelieving faces. The team that was just two wins from one World Series in 2021 did not seem to have weak points in its lineup and the addition of Trevor Storyseemed like a spectacular addition to a squad that would once again go all out this season.

29 games later, the Red Sox are in last place in a division that includes Baltimore Orioles (considered one of the worst teams in recent memory on Big leagues) 10 games out of first place. The record of ten wins and nineteen losses is purely a reflection of how poorly the team has played and when we refer to or play poorly, we speak in historical terms.

To put in context how bad this start has been, you only have to compare it with respect to the other three previous years of alex cora as a leader of the group to understand what is worrying about it. In 2021, Boston lost his nineteenth game in game 49 of the season (29-19), in 2019, he did it in number 41 (22-19) and in 2018, when Red Sox he won his most recent World Cup, that defeat came in match 62 of the year (43-19). cora he had never reached 19 losses with a losing record as a manager until this year.

The main reason for the collapse, in simple terms, has been the team’s inability to hit.

To date, after 29 games played, Boston he has an offensive line that includes a .228 batting average, .279 on-base percentage (OBP) and a .342 slugging percentage (SLG). Adding up the last two stats gives you a .621 OPS. the worst for the team since 1961 (61 years ago), when they just racked up .619.

That 1961 team finished sixth in the american league (the divisional format did not exist then) with a record of 75 wins and 87 losses.

To give more context of how bad the Red Sox, if we take the first six innings of each of the last fourteen games, the team has only scored 18 runs in 84 innings. Of those 84 innings, they haven’t scored runs in 72, which is 85.7 percent.

Still, anyone can wonder if the entire offense is suffering overall or if there’s any reason the team’s numbers look so bad. The first thing is to remove from the middle rafael devers (.308/.336/.475), Xander Bogaerts (.343/.393/.472) and JD Martinez (.294/.337/.518), say, the top of the lineup, who have been hitting more than acceptable. The other batsmen have been left to duty.

Carita for the opposite Band? OF COURSE YES! ⚾️🔥#MLBxESPN
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— ESPN.com.do🇩🇴 (@ESPN_DO) March 30, 2022

In the last fifteen games, the players who have played catcher, first and second base, as well as the outfield have collectively had 320 official at-bats and their stat line includes a .175 batting average and a .477 OPS with 23 RBIs, 76 strikeouts and no home runs.

We go further for those who might think that the problem also includes pitchers. From April 23 to date, in 14 games, the starters “red footedThey’ve pitched 70.2 innings and have a 1.66 ERA. The team has a record of three wins and eleven losses in that stretch. Pitchers are giving a chance to win.

This way of playing will bring many questions to the immediate future of the team, especially with regard to the contractual situation of Xander Bogaerts and his tenure with the Red Sox beyond this season, but as that situation is resolved, we are in the presence of one of the worst starts in the history of the only team that has won four World Series from the year 2000 to date.