2017 Basebawful Awards

Fernando Abad had 26 Good, 9 Bad, 6 Ugly, 2 Hero and 1 Jackass

Matt Barnes had 48 Good, 12 Bad, 3 Ugly, 2 Hero and 4 Jackass

Andrew Benintendi had 58 Good, 29 Bad, 53 Ugly, 11 Hero and 2 Jackass

Mookie Betts had 48 Good, 22 Bad, 74 Ugly, 8 Hero and 3 Jackass

Xander Bogaerts had 57 Good, 22 Bad, 59 Ugly, 5 Hero, 4 Jackass and 3 Honorable Mention

Blaine Boyer had 23 Good, 5 Bad, 2 Ugly and 2 Hero

Jackie Bradley Jr had 54 Good, 26 Bad, 50 Ugly, 1 Hero, 1 Jackass

Chase d'Arnaud had 2 Good

Rajai Davis had 6 Good, 6 Bad, 3 Ugly and 3 Honorable Mention

Rafael Devers had 23 Good, 9 Bad, 24 Ugly, 5 Hero, 1 Jackass

Roenis Elias had 1 Good

Doug Fister had 3 Good, 3 Bad, 5 Ugly, 3 Hero and 5 Jackass

Heath Hembree had 31 Good, 14 Bad, 10 Ugly, 1 Hero and 4 Jackass

Marco Hernandez had 9 Good, 6 Bad, 5 Ugly and 1 Jackass

Brock Holt had 19 Good, 19 Bad, 18 Ugly, 1 Jackass and 6 Honorable Mention

Brian Johnson had 1 Bad, 3 Ugly and 1 Hero

Joe Kelly had 35 Good, 14 Bad, 4 Ugly, 1 Hero and 1 Jackass

Kyle Kendrick had 1 Bad and 1 Jackass

Craig Kimbrel had 53 Good, 2 Bad, 5 Ugly, 3 Hero and 3 Jackass

Sandy Leon had 30 Good, 23 Bad, 26 Ugly, 4 Hero, 1 Jackass, 2 Honorable Mention

Tzu-Wei Lin had 9 Good, 9 Bad, 4 Ugly and 3 Honorable Mention

Austin Maddox had 12 Good, 1 Bad, 1 Ugly and 1 Hero

Deven Marrero had 24 Good, 23 Bad, 12 Ugly, 3 Hero and 9 Honorable Mention

Kyle Martin had 1 Good and 1 Ugly.

Mitch Moreland had 64 Good, 35 Bad, 47 Ugly, 4 Hero, 1 Jackass and 2 Honorable Mention

Eduardo Nunez had 19 Good, 6 Bad, 13 Ugly and 1 Hero.

Dustin Pedroia had 51 Good, 15 Bad, 35 Ugly, 4 Hero and 2 Jackass

Drew Pomeranz had 11 Good, 2 Bad, 5 Ugly, 8 Hero and 5 Jackass

Rick Porcello had 12 Good, 3 Bad, 12 Ugly, 2 Hero and 6 Jackass

David Price had 11 Good, 2 Ugly, 3 Hero and 2 Jackass

Hanley Ramirez had 48 Good, 31 Bad, 53 Ugly, 2 Hero, 2 Jackass and 1 Honorable Mention

Noe Ramirez had 1 Good and 1 Bad

Addison Reed had 23 Good, 4 Bad, 1 Ugly, 2 Hero and 1 Jackass

Eduardo Rodriguez had 10 Good, 2 Bad, 4 Ugly, 4 Hero and 6 Jackass

Robbie Ross Jr had 2 Good, 3 Bad and 3 Ugly

Josh Rutledge had 9 Good, 11 Bad, 12 Ugly, 1 Jackass and 3 Honorable Mention

Chris Sale had 11 Good, 4 Bad, 5 Ugly, 10 Hero and 4 Jackass

Pablo Sandoval had 9 Good, 9 Bad, 12 Ugly and 2 Honorable Mention

Robby Scott had 38 Good, 12 Bad, 4 Ugly, 1 Hero and 1 Jackass

Steve Selsky had 1 Good, 5 Bad and 2 Honorable Mention

Carson Smith had 6 Good, 1 Bad, 2 Ugly and 1 Hero

Blake Swihart had 3 Good, 1 Bad, 1 Ugly and 1 Honorable Mention

Ben Taylor had 8 Good, 2 Bad, 2 Ugly and 1 Hero

Sam Travis had 10 Good, 14 Bad, 5 Ugly, 1 Hero and 2 Honorable Mention

Christian Vazquez had 37 Good, 22 Bad, 30 Ugly, 3 Hero, 3 Jackass and 6 Honorable Mention

Hector Velazquez had 4 Good, 3 Hero and 1 Jackass.

Brandon Workman had 18 Good, 6 Bad, 7 Ugly and 1 Hero

Steven Wright had 1 Good, 1 Bad and 3 Jackass

Chris Young had 37 Good, 26 Bad, 19 Ugly, 3 Hero, 1 Jackass and 3 Honorable Mention




2017 Most Valuable Player is Mitch Moreland with 64 Good

2017 Least Valuable Player...also happens to be Mitch Moreland with 35 Bad.

2017 Ugliest Player of the Year is Mookie Betts with 71 Ugly

Hero of the Year is Andrew Benintendi with 11 Hero

Jackass of the Year due to a tie-breaker is Rick Porcello.

The Honorable Player of the Year is Deven Marrero with 9 Honorable Mention

Alex Cora Hired as Manager (10/22/17)

It took just 11 days but less than two weeks after John Farrell was fired as manager of the Boston Red Sox, they have found his replacement. Former Red Sox infielder and current bench coach of the Houston Astros, Alex Cora was named as the new manager of the Sox.

                                                 Welcome back Alex

The decision to hire Cora is based on his ability to coach younger players. John Farrell clearly was not getting through to Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and some of the other guys that completely underperformed in 2017. Cora's ability to keep Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and the other Astros in check was a huge reason why he was available as a managerial choice.

When Farrell was first hired in 2013, he was inheriting a team of veterans and some holdovers from the 2007 Red Sox, primarily his former pitchers Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester. In the last 4 years all the veterans and holdovers with the one exception of Dustin Pedroia are gone. The Sox inablity to perform in the playoffs cannot entirely be blamed on Farrell, but it sure didn't help that a lot of players regressed in 2017. Not just Betts and Bogaerts but Hanley Ramirez fell apart as well. Going into the season Andrew Benintendi was supposed to be a shoo-in as rookie of the year but Aaron Judge blew him out of the water. The pitching staff performed admirably but offensively the Sox underperformed and it was time for Farrell to go. Someone had to take the fall for back to back no-shows in the playoffs and it made sense to can him.

The Sox will be banking on Cora to right the likes of Betts and Bogaerts but how he handles the pitchers will be his real challenge. As incompetent as he was with pinch hitters and batting lineups, Farrell has proven he can get through to pitchers. Drew Pomeranz was a huge bust up from the moment he was traded here until the moment Farrell gave Pomeranz a huge tongue lashing against Oakland. After that, Drew became one of the best starters in the American League, winning 17 games. Can Cora get through to him to keep up that kind of streak moving forward?

                                                             Cora at the plate

Whether or not the Sox sign some free agents or make some trades is up in the air at this point, but the Sox had to move on from Farrell and with the Sox going with a young core of Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Benintendi, Bogaerts, Christian Vazquez and Rafael Devers, they needed someone they could connect with. With the New York Yankees vastly improving, the Sox need to get their heads out of their collective asses from ownership on down if they want to keep their stranglehold on the AL East title.

Cora was apart of the 2007 Red Sox world championship team and the Astros are on their way to becoming champions so Alex does bring some championship pedigree to the table. If nothing else, 2018 should be interesting to see what he can do. After all, he can't be any worse than Bobby Valentine....right?

John Farrell Fired (10/11/17)

It took just two days but the Boston Red Sox formally announced that John Farrell's services will not be needed after back to back first round exits following back to back last place finishes. It was a long time coming because quite frankly, the Red Sox regressed this season after what was a great bounce back 2016. The loss of David Ortiz hurt and injuries to David Price, Tyler Thornburg and Steven Wright didn't help, but the evaporation of the Red Sox offense in 2017 was frightening. It all starts up top and Dave Dombrowski refusing to sign Edwin Encarnarcion and trading away Travis Shaw was a death knell. Still, Dombrowski did his best to fix things by trading for bits and pieces along the 2017 season to at least attempt to fix it. Farrell, on the other hand, refused to change his ways and time and time again did things that were more harmful than good. Now he's on the unemployment line and well deserved.

Back in 2013 he was hired because he was familiar with the holdovers of the 2007 team when he was the pitching coach. He supposedly was going to help Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester and John Lackey pitch well and work with the relievers as well. The 2013 team was built on low cost, low risk free agents that overachieved beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, David Ross and especially Koji Uehara helped the holdovers Dustin Pedroia, Ortiz, Lester, etc win 97 games and the World Series. The criticisms of Farrell were few and far between in 2013 but not much went wrong that year.

The following season was a much different story. The 2014 season was more or less what was supposed to happen in 2013. The magic was gone and the offense evaporated as nobody performed as well as they had the year earlier. Still, Farrell didn't help matters when he took Xander Bogaerts out of the shortstop spot and handed it to the .200 hitting Stephen Drew. Bogaerts didn't hit effectively for pretty much the remainder of the season. Sox general manager Ben Cherrington torpedoed the team by trading Felix Doubront, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Jonny Gomes before the trade deadline for Joe Kelly, Allen Craig, Yoenis Cespedes, Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. As of this writing Jon Lester is trying to strong arm the Chicago Cubs to back to back world titles while Heath Hembree and Joe Kelly are mere relievers in the Red Sox bullpen. Still, the moves Farrell made as an in-game manager started to be questioned as the losses piled up. Why did he bring in this guy? Why didn't he pinch hit that guy? Why did he leave this guy in too long or pull him too early? The 2014 team was doomed to fail but if Farrell was as good as he was, you'd think they would have done better than last place.

The 2015 team was almost as bad as the previous. Cherrington eventually lost his job because rather than overpay to bring Jon Lester back, the starting rotation turned into a hodge podge. Buchholz, Kelly, Wade Miley, old friend Justin Masterson and Rick Porcello weren't exactly Lester and Lackey. The Sox plummeted out of contention and once again in last place. This time, grumblings about Farrell being replaced were louder as back to back last place finishes angered fans. Then Farrell was felled by a devastating strain of cancer and had to take a sabbatical from the team. In his place Torey Lovullo rallied the Sox to a respectable finish in August and September. Younger stars such as Jackie Bradley Jr, Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Blake Swihart along with improved pitching by Porcello, Kelly and rookie Eduardo Rodriguez damn near brought the Sox out of last place. This was the clue that something was wrong because it appeared that Lovullo had been able to bring out the best in the youngsters that Farrell couldn't.

The team greatly improved in 2016 but the warts in Farrell's managing were exposed. The Sox had a great season, finishing with 93 wins and their first division title since 2013 but there were warts. His in game decisions were head scratchers but for the most of the season, casual fans didn't notice. The first sign of trouble was when he sent ace pitcher Steven Wright to pinch run in a National League rules game. Wright ended up injuring his shoulder and being lost for the year. The Sox may have won 100 games had that not happened. Also at the end of the season, the Sox lost 5 of the season's final 6 games and got swept out of the playoffs by the Cleveland Indians. It appeared that Farrell took his foot off the gas after the team won 11 in a row to take a stranglehold of the AL East and it carried over into the playoffs where they failed to turn the switch on.

By 2017 everything fell apart for Farrell as the Sox endured their most frustrating season in 25 years. The Sox had arguably the best pitching staff in baseball and arguably the worst offense. Every game was a grinding struggle where the offense would average 5 hits while other teams including the Yankees would average 5 runs or so. Also Farrell had absolutely no idea when and where to pinch hit playrs, completely disregard scouting reports when it came to his pitchers and rode ace pitcher Chris Sale to death until he had nothing left. For example, Matt Barnes was struggling pitching on the road and Farrell kept sending him out there to fail. Xander Bogaerts took a fastball to the wrist and everyone in the country knew he wasn't the same but Farrell went on record saying Xander "Needed to play through it" rather than sit him down to let the wrist heal. Bogaerts didn't hit effectively again the rest of the year. Mookie Betts and Hanley Ramirez stats both went to hell because they were swinging for the fences on every pitch to replace the retired David Ortiz. Rather than sit them down and tell them to play their game and not try to be Ortiz, Farrell let them go and neither one of them contributed much by the end. It became apparent by the end of the season that there was something wrong between Farrell and the younger guys on the team. Then it came crashing to a halt because once again the team stumbled to the finish line, backing into the AL East division title. This time they at least won a game in the ALDS against the Houston Astros, but Farrell made a grand exit when he was thrown out of the final game he ever managed for the Red Sox.

So what happened? Many say that when he was hired, he was taking over a veteran team with pitchers he was familiar with when he was pitching coach years earlier. Once the transition happened from the 2013 Bearded Brothers to 2017's version, those pitchers were gone and Pedroia was the only veteran left. Its become apparent Farrell couldn't get through to Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and Rafael Devers. All those guys have the potential to be all-stars and we've seen Betts and Bogaerts play a lot better. Those four could be a force if handled right and hopefully the next manager can get them to play to their potential. As for the pitchers, that's where the concern is. Even though Chris Sale ran out of gas he was Pedro Martinez-esque in the first half, Drew Pomeranz had a hell of a breakout season, the bullpen was about as lights out as it got. Farrell did have a track record of getting the most of his pitchers, so that's a quality that may not be duplicated by his replacement. The bottom line is he had to go, but whoever they bring in better be able to get through to everyone that Farrell couldn't while maintaining the pitching staff.

Bawful Report of the Month (10/10/17)

Fernando Abad had 1 Jackass

Matt Barnes had 1 Good.

Andrew Benintendi had 1 Good, 1 Bad and 1 Ugly.

Mookie Betts had 1 Good and 3 Ugly

Xander Bogaerts had 1 Good and 3 Bad.

Jackie Bradley Jr had 1 Good, 2 Bad and 2 Ugly.

Rajai Davis had 1 Ugly and 1 Honorable Mention.

Rafael Devers had 2 Good, 1 Bad and 2 Ugly.

Doug Fister had 1 Bad.

Brock Holt had 1 Good and 1 Honorable Mention.

Joe Kelly had 2 Good and 1 Ugly.

Craig Kimbrel had 1 Good and 1 Jackass.

Sandy Leon had 3 Good.

Austin Maddox had 1 Good and 1 Bad.

Deven Marrero had 2 Bad.

Mitch Moreland had 3 Good and 1 Bad.

Eduardo Nunez had 1 Bad.

Dustin Pedroia had 1 Good, 1 Bad and 2 Ugly.

Drew Pomeranz had 1 Jackass.

Rick Porcello had 1 Good and 1 Ugly.

David Price had 1 Good and 1 Hero.

Hanley Ramirez had 3 Good and 1 Ugly.

Addison Reed had 1 Good and 1 Ugly.

Eduardo Rodriguez had 1 Bad.

Chris Sale had 1 Ugly and 1 Jackass.

Robby Scott had 1 Good.

Carson Smith had 1 Good and 1 Ugly.

Blake Swihart had 1 Bad.

Sam Travis had 1 Bad.

Christian Vazquez had 1 Good and 2 Ugly.

Hector Velazquez had 1 Good.

Brandon Workman had 1 Bad.

Chris Young had 1 Good and 1 Ugly.



Hero of the Month is David Price with 1 Hero.

The Quad-Jackasses of the Month are Fernando Abad, Drew Pomeranz, Craig Kimbrel and Chris Sale with 1 Jackass apiece.

Most Valuable Player of the Month due to a tiebreaker is Sandy Leon with 3 Good.

Least Valuable Player of the Month is Xander Bogaerts with 3 Bad

The Ugliest Player of the Month is Mookie Betts with 3 Ugly.

The Honorable Player of the Month due to a tiebreaker is Brock Holt with 1 Honorable Mention.

Astros Eliminate Sox With Late Rally (10/9/17)

Unlike last season, this year couldn't end fast enough. Thankfully it ended today as the Houston Astros advanced to the American League Championship Series, stunning the Boston Red Sox with a late inning rally off Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. The Astros pounded out 50 hits and 24 runs in this series, hitting everyone the Sox threw at them. In the end the Sox were outgunned and outpitched with a season ending 5-4 defeat at Fenway Park.

                                             Finally the season is over

Porcello immediately crapped his pants as George Springer doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch. Josh Reddick walked and Springer scored on the Jose Altuve double play. Carlos Correa walked and Marwin Gonzalez was hit with a pitch, but Porcello struck out Alex Bregman to end the inning with the Astros up 1-0 already.

                                              He'll take the pain and the 1-0 lead

The Sox immediately fought back although Dustin Pedroia led off with a weak grounder to first to start. Bogaerts ended an 0-14 slump with a line drive home run into the bullpen to tie the game. Andrew Benintendi hit a pathetic grounder to second but Mookie Betts singled off the Monster. Betts swiped second but Mitch Moreland was rung up on a check swing in the dirt to end the inning. Still, the game was tied 1-1.

                                       "What do you mean "home run", what is that?" - XB

The rains came in the top of the second inning and so did the Astros as Yuli Guriel hit a routine single to Betts....who threw his glove at the ball and ran away screaming. Guriel motored all the way around for a triple although Porcello did manage to strike out Evan Gattis and Brian McCann. Naturally Springer singled in Guriel to put the Astros on top. Reddick singled and Altuve walked to load the bases, but Rick somehow struck out Correa to keep it a 2-1 game.

The Sox tried to fight back when Hanley Ramirez hit a seeing eye single through the hole in short to begin the bottom of the second. Rafael Devers singled and Christian Vazquez walked to load the bases with nobody out....but naturally Jackie Bradley Jr watched strike three go by. Pedroia was rung up for strike three on a pitch inside and he started screaming at home plate umpire Mark Wegner. All off a sudden John Farrell bolted out of the dug out and jumped in front of the umpire, screaming his head off. John got the HEAVEEEE HO and had to be escorted out of Fenway by security. Naturally Bogaerts popped up to end the inning as the boo-birds rained down on the Red Sox. Yes the umpire didnt help but that was a microcosm of the season, bases loaded and no one out yet they don't score.

                                               In possibly Farrell's last game...he gets tossed

Porcello returned for the top of the third and got Gonzalez to ground out to a diving Pedroia at second to start. Bregman popped up to right and it looked like it would be an easy inning....but Guriel doubled over the head of JBJ. Gattis did pop up to second to end the inning. Andrew Benintendi finally woke up with a single to lead off the bottom of the third....but was doubled off on a scolding liner by Betts. More bad luck for the Sox as Moreland smashed a double down the left field line that would have scored Benintendi. Ramirez then hit a broken bat single....but idiot third base coach Brian Butterfield sent the slow Moreland home and he was thrown out by a mile to end the inning.

                                              Another horrible send by Butterfield

Acting manager Gary DiScarcina took no chances and brought in Chris Sale in the top of the fourth inning. Sale froze McCann on a nasty slider before getting Springer to pop up to Pedroia in shallow center. Guriel hit a comebacker to Sale to end the inning. Morton finally settled down in the bottom of the fourth as Devers whiffed badly on a slider down and in, Vazquez whiffed badly on another slider down and in. JBJ whiffed to end the inning.

Sale returned for the top of the fifth inning and Devers snuffed out a bunt attempt by Altuve to start. Correa watched strike three go by and Gonzalez flied out to end the inning. In a total shocker, the Sox took the lead in the bottom of the fifth although Pedroia grounded out to start. Bogaerts walked and that was it for Morton. Astros manager AJ Hinch brought in none other than Justin Verlander to save the day. The opposite happened as Benintendi greeted him with a 2 run home run into right to give the Sox the lead. Betts grounded out to short but Moreland walked. Ramirez popped up to center but the Sox were 12 outs from victory and led 3-2.

                                                   Benintendi puts the Sox on top

Sale returned for the top of the sixth inning to get Bregman to pop up to center and get Guriel to hit a routine grounder to third.....but Devers went OLE and Guriel ended up on second due to the error. Sale froze Gattis and whiffed McCann to end the inning with no damage done. Verlander returned for the bottom of the sixth and walked Devers to begin, but Vazquez popped up to center. JBJ banged into a double play to end the inning.

The Astros almost struck back in the top of the seventh when Springer singled to left off Sale to start. Sale did manage to get Reddick to pop up to left. Altuve was rung up on a questionable call but Correa singled to left. With the season on the line, Sale whiffed Gonzalez to end the inning. 4 shutout innings by Sale to keep the Sox in front. Verlander shut down the Sox in the bottom of the seventh as Pedroia grounded out again, Bogaerts popped up to center and Benintendi flied out to right to end the inning.

The Astros effectively ended the season due to Gary DiScarcina leaving in Sale in the top of the eighth. Bregman blasted a 27,968,160 foot bomb into the Baltic Sea to tie the game immediately. Guriel grounded out to short but Gattis hit a ball down the left field line that was ruled fair, but the sideline ball-boy fielded it which was ruled automatic interference. Gattis went to second but had to go back to first where he was removed for pinch runner Cameron Maybin. Sale got lucky when McCann lined out to right and that was it for him. Sale did great for 4 innings but was pushed too long and was now on the hook.

                                                  Sale deserved better

Craig "The Buzzard" Kimbrel came in and a passed ball moved Maybin to second before Springer walked. Reddick gave one final "screw you" to the Sox for getting rid of him with a base hit to score Maybin with the go-ahead run. Altuve popped up to to center to end the inning but the Astros were up for good 4-3.

                                                 Of all the people to blow it....

Astros closer Ken Giles came in for the bottom of the eighth but the life was gone from the Sox. Betts reverted to July when he pulled a pitch heading to the backstop back to Giles for the first out. Moreland grounded out to short and Ramirez hit a weak tapper to the mound to end the inning. Goodbye Red Sox.

The Astros put the game away in the top of the ninth although Kimbrel struck out Correa to start. Kimbrel fell apart as Gonzalez was plunked but Bregman flied out to center. Guriel inside-outed a single to right then Carlos Beltran pinch hit for Maybin and doubled off the Monster to score Gonzalez with the insurance run. McCann flied out to center to end the inning but the game was all but over 5-3.

                                            Why couldn't the Red Sox get a guy like this?

The Sox had one last tease for the fans when Devers struck an inside the park homerun past the diving Springer in center to begin the bottom of the ninth. That was it as Vazquez grounded out to short and JBJ whiffed badly on a pitch in the dirt. Pedroia grounded out to second to end the season The Astros had won it 5-4 and moved on to the ALCS.

                                                    Congrats to the Astros


Jackass of The Night is Craig Kimbrel. He allowed the go-ahead run to score then fell apart in the top of the ninth inning allowing 2 more runs. He pulled a Tom Gordon from 1998, money all season but blows the last game of the year.

                                         One last Jackass and its Kimbrel



The Good:

Xander Bogaerts was 1 for 3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and a solo home run.

Andrew Benintendi was 2 for 4 with a 2 run blast.

Mitch Moreland was 1 for 3 with a walk.

Hanley Ramirez was 2 for 4.

Rafael Devers was 2 for 3 with an inside the park home run.



The Bad:

Dustin Pedroia was 0 for 5 with a strikeout.

Jackie Bradley Jr was 0 for 4 with a hat trick of 3 strikeouts.



The Ugly:

Mookie Betts was just 1 for 4.

Christian Vazquez was 0 for 3 but walked.

Rick Porcello allowed 2 runs in just 3 innings but made some big strikeouts to limit the damage.

Chris Sale pitched 4 2/3 innings but allowed the game tying home run.




Final Thoughts:

Thank friggin god this miserable season is over. What started out with so much promise turned into one of the most agonizing seasons in history. The Sox could not hit for most of the season and couldn't pitch when it mattered in the post-season. The Astros were no joke but the starting pitching failed to show up and there were several mistakes in Game 4. Leaving Sale in too long, leaving Kimbrel in too long, having Moreland thrown out at home, letting Pedroia bat in the ninth.....all of it contributed to the loss. Unlike last season, there really is nothing that can be done to improve the team. They sold the farm to put together this team and they're still not better than the Astros, the Cleveland Indians and I'm sorry to say, the New York Yankees. Aaron Judge may have a sophomore slump but he makes Benintendi look like Bob Zupzic and Gary Sanchez makes Christian Vazquez look like Scott Hatteberg. The first thing the Sox can do is fire the manager and the entire coaching staff. Butterfield cost them the season by having so many runners thrown out on the basepaths, the offense totally collapsed under Chili Davis and what can Farrell possibly do at this point after back to back first round exits? Still, a 93 win season and Division title should be celebrated, but they could and should have been much, much better. Maybe next year a healthy Price and Tyler Thornburg along with an improved Porcello could make the difference but for now, it doesn't look good heading into 2018. As for the 2017 Sox.....get out and stay out!

Sox Pound Astros, Stay Alive (10/8/17)

Well if you thought this season was going to come to a bitter end you could be right....but not today. In a complete script reversal the Boston Red Sox took a nice big dump on the 100 win Houston Astros in Game 3 of the ALDS. The Sox pounded out 15 hits, 2 home runs and ran away at the end with a victory to stay alive in the post-season for one more day. David Price earned his money big time, shutting down the Astros and saving the season big time. The 10-3 win by the Sox at Fenway Park was the first post-season win since the Sox clinched the 2013 World Series.

                                                 The late Tom Petty approves of the win

The torture began immediately in the top of the first when George Springer singled and a wild pitch moved him to second. Josh Reddick singled home Springer to put the Astros up for good two batters into the game. Jose Altuve grounded out but Carlos Correa smashed a 739 foot bomb to Rhode Island and the Sox were THUNDEROUSLY booed. Marwin Gonzalez grounded out to short and Alex Bregman struck out to end the inning but it was 3-0 Astros. Fans were absolutely livid and booed the daylights out of the Sox.

                                                 Here we go again

Meanwhile the useless Red Sox offense proved how useless they were in the bottom of the first against Brad Peacock. Xander Bogaerts grounded out to second but somehow Dustin Pedroia singled. Andrew Benintendi flied out to right and Mookie Betts whiffed to end the inning.

The wheels fell off for Fister in the top of the second as Carlos Beltran walked and Yuli Guriel singled to center, but somehow Doug got Brian McCann to line out to center. After yelling and screaming and making unessecary exaggerated motions all year, Sox manager John Farrell had no energy left and calmly pulled Fister after recording just 4 outs and giving up 3 runs. Bye bye Fister and it looked like bye bye Red Sox.

                                                          Fister gets fisted one last time

Joe Kelly came in and immediately threw a wild pitch that moved runners over, but somehow they didn't score on the Springer ground out. Betts made an amazing catch to rob Reddick of a triple to end the inning. The Sox looked to rally when Mitch Moreland and Hanley Ramirez stroked back to back singles before Rafael Devers walked to load the bases with nobody out. In a complete miracle, Sandy Leon singled to score Moreland to put the Sox on the board. That was it as Jackie Bradley Jr whiffed, Ramirez was forced at home on a pathetic grounder by Bogaerts and Pedroia lined out to left to end the inning. The Sox had the bases loaded and nobody out needing 1 hit to tie the game...and didn't get it. It was 3-1 but that was a huge squander

                                                      Ramirez is fired up for this one

The Astros were totally offended the Sox had the unmitigated audacity to score a run so Altuve singled to start the top of the third inning. Somehow Correa banged into a double play but Gonzalez singled. Bregman flied out to right to end the inning. In a totally miraculous moment, the Sox rallied in the bottom of the third inning. Andrew Benintendi and Mookie Betts whiffed and Astros fans began laughing at Sox fans that they'd never score again. All of a sudden Moreland doubled and Gonzalez misplayed a Ramirez single, allowing Mitch to score. Just like that Peacock was out of the game as Astros manager AJ Hinch made the monumental mistake of bringing in Fransisco Liriano to pitch to Devers. Rafael put the Sox on top with a 2 run home run into the bullpen for his first post-season home run. Leon singled but JBJ lined out to first to end the inning with the Sox ahead 4-3.

                                                        Devers' blast makes it 4-3

Sox manager John Farrell took no chances and brought in David Price to hold the fort in the top of the fourth inning. Beltran grounded out to second but Guriel singled. McCann lined out to right and Springer struck out to end the inning. Lance McCullers Jr came in to pitch the bottom of the fourth inning and Bogaerts hit a comebacker to the mound to start. Pedroia grounded out to third but Benintendi hit one in the hole at short and Correa threw the ball away, allowing Andrew to reach second. Betts walked but Moreland whiffed to end the inning.

Price ran into trouble in the top of the fifth inning when Reddick and Altuve hit back to back singles, but Reddick was forced at third on a grounder by Correa. Price got a huge strikeout by whiffing Gonzalez and Bregman grounded out to end the inning. Good work Price. Ramirez singled to open the bottom of the fifth but Devers banged into a double play to kill that rally. Leon looked at strike three to end the inning.

Price continued to dazzle in the top of the sixth inning by striking out Beltran to start. Guriel singled but McCann and Springer flied out to right to end the inning. The Sox mustered nothing in the bottom of the sixth as JBJ and Bogaerts struck out before Pedroia grounded out to second to end the inning.

Price had one more inning left in him and he got Reddick to pop up to begin the top of the seventh inning. Altuve walked but Correa lined out to right. Gonzalez struck out to end the inning and the once hated David Price got a standing ovation for tossing 4 shut-out innings.

The Sox iced the game in the bottom of the seventh inning against Chris Devenski as Moreland singled and Ramirez doubled him home. Devers singled home Ramirez and that was it for Devenski. Joe Musgrove came in and Leon flied out to right, but JBJ belted a 3 run bomb to put the game out of reach. Bogaerts lined out to left and Pedroia flied out to left to end the inning but it was 10-3 Sox. Game over.

                                                      JBJ ices it in the seventh

For some reason Sox manager John Farrell brought in Addison Reed to pitch the top of the eighth inning even though the Sox had a 7 run lead although he did get Bregman and Beltran to fly out to right. Guriel singled but McCann grounded out to first to end the inning. Juan Ceteno took over behind the plate as Luke Gregerson came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning. Benintendi flied out to center, Betts looked at strike three and Moreland grounded out to third to end the inning.

Carson Smith came in to close out the game in the top of the ninth inning. Springer singled but Reddick grounded into a double play. Correa looked at strike three to end the game. The Sox had turned the tables on the Astros and ran away with a 10-3 victory to keep the season alive for one more day.

Hero of the Night is David Price. He was summoned to protect a one run lead and he gave the Sox 4 shut-out innings against arguably the most potent offense in baseball.

                                                   Price the unlikely Hero


The Good:

Mitch Moreland was 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored.

Hanley Ramirez was 4 for 4 with 3 rbis and 2 runs scored.

Rafael Devers was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored, 3 rbis and a 2 run home run.

Sandy Leon was 2 for 4 with an rbi.

Joe Kelly put out the fire with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Addison Reed pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

Carson Smith pitched a scoreless 9th inning.



The Bad:

Xander Bogaerts was 0 for 5 with a strikeout.

Doug Fister lasted just 1 1/3 innings while giving up 3 runs, pathetic.



The Ugly:

Dustin Pedroia was just 1 for 5.

Andrew Benintendi was just 1 for 4 but walked and scored.

Mookie Betts was just 1 for 4 but walked and scored.

Jackie Bradley Jr was just 1 for 4 but made the hit count as it was a 3 run homer.



Final Thoughts:

Guess the torturous season continues for one more game at least. The Sox FINALLY showed some signs of life as fans once again had tuned them out and given up on them until they rallied in the third inning. Bogaerts and Pedroia have been all but useless this year but good to see Moreland, Ramirez and Devers string some hits together. The problem is they can't do it consistently. Still, if this was the last win of the season, they made it a memorable one. The Astros' lone weakness compared to the Sox is their bullpen so once the Sox knocked Peacock out, it was only a matter of time before they struck. The Sox most likely have no chance to win Game 4 at home with Rick Porcello on the mound against Charlie Morton, but if they can run up Morton's pitch count they may be able to get him out early. Of course Porcello may serve up a post-season record for home runs to render that point moot. Still, there will be a Game 4 and it is tomorrow at 1 PM at Fenway Park.

Pomeranz Pounded, Astros Take 2-0 Lead (10/6/17)

Talk about an absolute embarrassment the Boston Red Sox have become in the past two weeks. After collapsing down the stretch and nearly gagging away the Division title, the Sox once again laid down and died to the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the ALDS. This time Drew Pomeranz crapped his pants and Dallas Keuchel shut down the anemic Red Sox offense. To add injury to insult, Mookie Betts had to be carried out on a stretcher after re-injuring his wrist. The Sox are beat up, they're exhausted, they can't pitch, they can't hit and they lost 8-2 to the Astros at Minute Maid Park to put them one loss away from elimination.

Keuchel began his dominance in the top of the first inning as Xander Bogaerts grounded out to third to start. Dustin Pedroia somehow drew a walk but was erased on the Andrew Benintendi force. Mookie Betts miraculously doubled but Hanley Ramirez grounded out to third to end the inning. The Astros wasted no time scoring in the bottom of the first although George Springer grounded out to second to start. Alex Bregman flied out to right but Jose Altuve singled. Carlos Correa then blasted a 7,399 foot home run halfway to Oklahoma to give the Astros the lead. Evan Gattis flied out to center to end the inning but the Astros led 2-0.

                                               Correa's blast puts the Astros on top

The Sox tried to fight back when Chris Young doubled and stole third to start the top of the second inning before Christian Vazquez walked. Deven Marrero whiffed but Jackie Bradley Jr singled to score Young to put the Sox on the board. With Keuchel on the run,  Bogaerts and Pedroia both whiffed to end the inning. The Sox were down 2-1 but squandered a huge chance to take the lead.

                                              JBJ's single puts the Sox back in it

Surprisingly Pomeranz didn't poop himself just yet in the bottom of the second inning as Josh Reddick flied out to left to begin. Yuli Gurriel walked but Marwin Gonzalez whiffed. Brian McCann popped up to short to end the inning.

The Sox offense gave up in the top of the third as Beintendi flied out to center, Betts grounded out to second and Ramirez looked at strike three to end the inning. The rout continued as Springer blasted a 937 foot bomb out of Minute Maid Park to increase the lead and Bregman doubled high off the wall. Altuve singled home Bregman and that was it for Pomeranz. The Sox most improved pitcher of 2017 reverted to 2016 and gave up 4 runs in just 2 plus innings. What good is a season of improvement if he melts in the playoffs?

                  Pomeranz attacks the Gatorade with more ferocity than he did the Astros

Sox manager John Farrell tied his luck with Carson Smith but he walked Correa and Gattis to load the bases. Smith managed to get Reddick to line out to a diving Marrero, but Farrell stormed out of the dugout with a broadsword and chased away Smith as David Price chugged in from the bullpen. Guriel popped up to short and Gonzalez hit one up the elevator shaft to end the inning with the Astros up 4-1.

The Sox gave up in the top of the fourth inning as Young lined out to short, Vazquez whiffed and Marrero struck out to end the inning. Price returned for the bottom of the fourth and got McCann to ground out to second but Springer doubled. Price recovered to get Bregman to ground out to second before Altuve was finally intentionally walked. Correa popped up to second to end the inning.

Keuchel dominated the top of the fifth as JBJ hit a comebacker to the mound, Bogaerts flied out to center and Pedroia grounded out to short to end the inning. Price finished with a flurry in the bottom of the fifth as Gattis was rung up for strike three to start. Reddick whiffed and Guriel grounded out to short to end the inning.

The Sox did nothing in the top of the sixth as Benintendi grounded out to first to start before Betts whiffed  Ramirez drew a walk to chase Keuchel after he had retired 14 in a row. Chris Devenski came in and Mitch Moreland pinch hit for Young....just to pop up to short to end the inning. The wheels fell off in the bottom of the sixth as Farrell decided to go with Eduardo Rodriguez of all people. Gonzalez greeted him with a single and McCann was plunked. Farrell sprinted out of the dugout ripping his shirt open and throwing his hat at Rodriguez, screaming at him to get out of there. Addison Reed came in to stop the bleeding but ended up pouring salt in the wound as Springer beat out a double play ball to put runners at the corners. Bregman hit a short pop up to Betts who caught it...then spiked the ball and did the boogie woogie not realizing there were only 2 outs, scoring Gonzalez on the error. Altuve was intentionally walked again and this time Correa made the Sox pay with a 2 run double. Gattis singled in Correa but Reddick grounded out to end the inning with the Astros once again humiliating the Sox 8-1.

                                                    More runs.....again

Somehow Vazquez singled for the Sox first hit in 4 innings to open the top of the seventh. Rafael Devers pinch hit for Marrero...just to look at strike three. JBJ lined out to center and Bogaerts grounded out to short to end the inning. Once again the horrendous Red Sox offense failed to show up in an important game. Austin Maddox came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and Guriel greeted him with a single. Gonzalez flied out to right and McCann singled. Springer walked to load the bases but Maddox got Bregman to pop up for the second out. With no choice but to pitch to Altuve, Maddox somehow struck him out to end the inning. That and Price were about the only highlights of this dreary game.

Luke Gregerson came in to pitch the top of the eighth inning and Pedroia met him with an infield single. Brock Holt pinch ran for the gimpy Pedroia but Benintendi whiffed. Betts flied out to left and fell to the ground in agony clutching his wrist. He had to be carried out on a stretcher to add injury to insult. Ramirez whiffed to end the inning. Losing Nunez and Betts to injury pretty much means the season is about to come to a crashing halt.

Rajai Davis took over in right as Craig "The Buzzard" Kimbrel came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth just to keep fresh. Correa lined out to left and the ageless Carlos Beltran pinch hit for Gattis....and singled. Cameron Maybin pinch hit for Reddick and Derek Fisher pinch ran for Beltran. Maybin lined out to center and Guriel whiffed to end the inning.

Thankfully the disaster ended in the top of the ninth with closer Ken Giles in the game to get some work in as well. Somehow the Sox rallied as Moreland lined out to left but Vazquez singled. Devers popped up to third but a wild pitch moved Vazquez to second. JBJ stroked a lucky single to score Vaz just to piss off the fans. Bogaerts whiffed to end the game and the Astros had won 2 in a row by a score of 8-2 to put the Sox on the brink.

Jackass of the Night should be John Farrell for his idiotic pitching changes but it has to be Drew Pomeranz. He lasted just 2 plus innings and gave up 4 runs after having a tremendous bounce back season. If he and Chris Sale can't get the Astros out, how can anyone else?

                                            Walk away you Jackass


The Good:

Dustin Pedroia was 1 for 3 with a walk.

Chris Young was 1 for 2 with a run scored.

Christian Vazquez was 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.

Jackie Bradley Jr was 2 for 4 with 2 rbis.

David Price tossed 2 2/3 clutch scoreless innings to keep the Sox in the game.

Austin Maddox pitched a scoreless 7th inning.

Craig Kimbrel pitched a scoreless 8th inning.



The Bad:

Xander Bogaerts was 0 for 5 with 2 strikeouts.

Andrew Benintendi was 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Mitch Moreland was 0 for 2 as a pinch hitter.

Deven Marrero was 0 for 2 with 2 strikeouts.

Rafael Devers was 0 for 2 with a strikeout.

Eduardo Rodriguez gave up a hit and hit a man.

Addison Reed allowed 2 inherited runners to score and 2 of his own.



The Ugly:

Mookie Betts was just 1 for 4 before being carried out on a stretcher.

Hanley Ramirez was 0 for 3 but walked.

Carson Smith put 2 of the 3 men he faced on base.



Honorable Mention:

Brock Holt pinch ran for Dustin Pedroia and played second.

Rajai Davis came in for Mookie Betts.




Final Thoughts:

Holy mother of ass this is BAD. Last year sucked against Cleveland but at least Game's 1 and 3 were competitive. This has been two straight blowouts that weren't even close. The Astros have 16 runs off 24 hits and 6 home runs. The Red Sox have 4 runs on 15 hits and zero home runs. Seriously, Jose Altuve could go 0 for 4 in Game 3 and still finish with more home runs than the ENTIRE RED SOX TEAM. Add in the injuries to Eduardo Nunez and you have a tired, exhausted, beaten team that seems to be ready to simply go home. Dustin Pedroia made some post-game comments about getting their asses kicked two games in a row with no end in sight. Mookie Betts also made comments that made it sound like they have no chance in hell. Not exactly Kevin Millar saying "Don't let us win tonight." Also Game 3 could be the last for John Farrell. Not that he was the sole reason the Sox lost, he wasn't, but somebody has to pay for back to back collapses at the end and a 3 game sweep both years. It sounds like I'm admitting defeat before Game 3 even begins, but I'm not the only one. Most Boston radio personalities, beat writers, sport writers and hundreds of fans all share the same sentiment. This was by far the most frustrating season in 25 years to have a pitching staff THIS talented and an offense THIS bad. The only team that comes close is the 1992 Red Sox who talent wise was far worse on offense. Even in the 1960's when the Red Sox were routinely terrible, they had a lot of offensive talent but not enough pitching. Even in the 1970's when they had Hall of Fame and All-Star offense, once again there was not enough pitching. Now its the complete opposite. Dave Dombrowski and John Henry have a lot of work to do in the off-season but for now there's still Game 3 to play. This Sunday the Sox rest their season on the right arm of....Doug Fister. Who saw that coming in July? He is opposed by Brad Peacock and the game starts at 2:30 PM at Fenway Park.

Astros Pound Sale, Sox in Game 1 (10/5/17)

Just as everyone thought, the Boston Red Sox puked all over themselves in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the 100 win Houston Astros that pounded them in 3 out of 4 games to end the regular season. Chris Sale vomited up his intestines as did the bullpen as Jose Altuve pulled a Reggie Jackson and hit 3 home runs to lead the Astros to an 8-2 victory at Minute Maid Park.

Xander Bogaerts led off with a pop up to third and Eduardo Nunez blew his knee out again running to first on a groundout to third. He had to be carried off the field by Sox manager John Farrell. Andrew Benintendi whiffed badly on a slider in the dirt to end the inning, but the game itself was ominous.

                         Bye bye Nunez

Sale took the ball in the bottom of the first and struck out George Springer to start. Alex Bregman started the massacre with a solo blast to left to put the Astros on top. 2 seconds later Jose Altuve smashed an 859 foot home run to go back to back. Carlos Correa hit an absolute rocket but Mookie Betts ran it down in right. Evan Gattis hit another bullet but Benintendi ran it down in left to end the inning. Sale and the Sox were flat and it was 2-0 Astros.

                                          The little guy set the tone for this series

The Sox bad baserunning cost them in the top of the second inning as Mookie Betts popped up to center to start. Somehow Mitch Moreland and Dustin Pedroia drew back to back walks but Rafael Devers swung at a pitch up in his eyes for strike three. Sandy Leon singled to center and Moreland broke for home, but old pal Josh Reddick threw to third and nailed Pedroia....BEFORE MORELAND SCORED! The run did not count and...wait...Sox manager John Farrell challenged that Moreland was safe. Turns out he was safe and the run counted, but the inning was over with the Astros up 2-1.

The Astros almost struck back in the bottom of the second as Reddick roped a single to right to start. Yuri Guriel hit a bullet to the centerfield wall but JBJ ran it down. Marwin Gonzalez whiffed but a passed ball moved Reddick to second. Brian McCann whiffed to end the inning but Sale had already thrown 50 pitches.

Jackie Bradley Jr popped up to center to start the top of the third before Bogaerts whiffed badly. Hanley Ramirez pinch hit for Nunez and somehow doubled to left. Benintendi popped up to third to end the inning. Sale struck out Springer to start the bottom of the third but Bregman singled. Altuve banged into a double play to end the inning.

The Sox miraculously tied the game in the top of the fourth inning as Betts led off with a double and Moreland singled him to third. Pedroia hit one up the elevator shaft but Devers scored Betts with a sac fly to tie the game. Leon singled but JBJ grounded out to second to end the inning with the game tied 2-2.

Sale fell apart in the bottom of the fourth inning although Correa popped up to second to start but Gattis doubled. JBJ damn near made a great diving catch to rob Josh Reddick but it was ruled a trap. Guriel flied out to right but Gonzalez doubled off the wall to score both runners. McCann popped up to short to end the inning but the Astros were up 4-2.

The Sox failed to respond in the top of the fifth inning as Bogaerts grounded out to short to begin. Ramirez did manage to get a base hit but Benintendi banged into a double play to end the inning. Sale looked to be in control in the bottom of the fifth when he struck out both Springer and Bregman...but Altuve blasted an 874 foot home run completely out of Minute Maid Park for his second dinger of the night. Correa grounded out to short but it was 5-2 Astros.

                                                    Not today Sale, not today

Verlander found his groove in the top of the sixth as Betts popped up to first, Moreland lined out to center and Pedroia grounded to third to end the inning. Sale returned for the bottom of the sixth but was quickly chased when Gattis doubled and Reddick walked. The big off-season acquisition that was the odds on favorite to win the Cy Young in July completely fell apart in September and lasted just 5 innings in the game that mattered.

                                                      Bye bye Sale

Joe Kelly came in and Guriel singled to load the bases but somehow Kelly struck out Gonzalez. McCann singled home two runs before Springer beat out a double play ball. Bregman flied out to end the inning but it was 7-2 Astros.

                                                  Tacking it on..and on...

With a 5 run lead against a pathetic offense, Astros manager AJ Hinch went to Chris Devenski to rest Verlander in the top of the seventh inning. Devers whiffed, Leon lined out to second and JBJ whiffed to end the inning. Austin Maddox made his post-season debut in the bottom of the seventh and Altuve greeted him with a 3,000 foot moonshot halfway to Montana for his third home run of the game. Move over Reggie Jackson. Correa flied out to center but Gattis walked. Derek Fisher pinch ran for Gattis but was thrown out trying to steal by the alert Leon. Reddick whiffed to end the inning but it was 8-2 Astros.

                                          Look out Reggie Jackson, here comes Altuve

The Sox mailed it in at this point in the top of the eighth with Will Harris on the mound. Bogaerts lined out to center and Ramirez grounded out to short, but Benintendi and Betts hit back to back singles. Taking no chances, Hinch brought in lefty Fransisco Liriano to pitch to Moreland. Naturally Mitch grounded out to second to end the inning. None other than Rick Porcello came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth and got Gurriel to line out to right to start. Gonzalez grounded out to first and McCann popped up to short to end the inning.

The torture came to an end in the top of the ninth with Joe Musgrove on the mound. Pedroia grounded out back to the mound, Devers flied out to left and Leon whiffed to end the game. The Astros easily defeated the Red Sox 8-2 to take a 1-0 lead in the ALDS.

Jackass of the Night is Chris Sale. The big hero completely pissed himself in his first post-season start by allowing 7 runs in just 5 plus innings, not giving the Sox a chance to win the game.

                                                 Nice going Jackass


The Good:

Hanley Ramirez was 2 for 3 filling in for Eduardo Nunez.

Mookie Betts was 2 for 4 with a run scored.

Mitch Moreland was 1 for 3 with a run scored.

Sandy Leon was 2 for 4 with an rbi.

Rick Porcello pitched a scoreless eighth inning.



The Bad:

Xander Bogaerts were 0 for 4 with a strikeout.

Eduardo Nunez was 0 for 1 before leaving with an injury.

Jackie Bradley Jr was 0 for 3 with a strikeout.

Austin Maddox allowed a home run in an inning of work.



The Ugly:

Andrew Benintendi was just 1 for 4 with a strikeout.

Dustin Pedroia was 0 for 3 with a walk.

Rafael Devers was 0 for 3 but drove in a run.

Joe Kelly allowed 2 inherited runners to score but none of his own in an inning of work.




Final Thoughts:

Holy moly what a dud. Then again, EVERYONE saw it coming. The offense has been pathetic all year and the defense is facing arguably the best 1-9 lineup in baseball. If the Sox can't pitch well they have no chance and they didn't pitch well today. There's nothing that can be done at this point, especially if Eduardo Nunez is done for the year. The starters are going to have to pitch the games of their lives or this series is over in 3. Tomorrow afternoon Drew Pomeranz tries his luck against Dallas Kuechel in Game 2 of this series at 2:00 PM at Minute Maid Park.

From Flu to First: The 2017 Boston Red Sox Season (10/3/17)

Without a doubt this has been one of the most frustrating and agonizing seasons in Boston Red Sox history. It began with a bizarre flu epidemic that not only wiped out players, but coaches and announcers as well. In the middle fans were ready to riot and burn their season tickets, in addition to the offense never clicking during the entire season. Still, after all that the Boston Red Sox managed to win back to back American League East Division Titles for the first time in history. Right now they are in the process of taking on the AL West Division Champion Houston Astros in the ALDS but let’s see how we got here.

After the 2016 Boston Red Sox finished their season by getting swept by the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS, the team bid farewell to “Big Papi” David Ortiz, arguably the best clutch hitter in franchise history. The problem was they never replaced him. Hindsight is 20/20 but even so, looking back on the 2016 off-season, it was almost a complete unmitigated disaster. Ortiz himself personally recommending spending big bucks to sign perennial 40 home run threat Edwin Encarnarcion who was hitting the free agent market. Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski had other ideas, letting the same Cleveland Indians team that fell an extra inning rally away from winning their first world title in 70 years, sign Encarnarcion. Instead Dave signed the much cheaper and much less productive Mitch Moreland to play first base with Hanley Ramirez moving into Ortiz’ DH role. Its not that Moreland was a bad guy or a bad player, he was good, but not great. Its the fact the Sox needed a power threat and Moreland was more of a doubles machine.

Then came the big trades, one that almost saved the franchise and one that almost crippled it. Pablo Sandoval had not lived up to his 57 million dollar contract his first two seasons in Boston. He was about as average as it got in 2015 and became a complete embarrassment in 2016, showing up to Spring Training hopelessly out of shape and becoming a laughing stock by busting his belt during an at-bat. He was performing so badly that he was ASKED to go get shoulder surgery to just stay away from the team. In his place the young Travis Shaw became a legitimate power threat, becoming the starting third basemen for the rest of the season. He had his ups and downs but the potential for stardom was there. With both Sandoval and Shaw on the roster for 2017, one of them had to go. Dombrowski made his choice and on December 6, 2016…he traded Shaw along with prospects Mauricio Dubon and Josh Pennington to the Milwaukee Brewers for top set up man Tyler Thornburg. The move partially made sense because they needed to shore up the bullpen, but they parted with one of the only power threats on the team in order to keep their 57 million dollar fat boy happy. How did this work out? More on that later.

In a better trade, the Sox gave up younger-than-Shaw third basemen Yoan Moncada and prospects Michael Kopech, Luis Basabe and Victor Diaz for Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale. The feeling was that the Sox didn’t have enough starting pitching to compete with the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs so Dombrowski went and got another ace to go with Cy Young champion Rick Porcello, 17 game winner David Price and returning 13 game winner Steven Wright. Sale had a reputation of being nasty but had a disclaimer that he runs out of gas towards the end of the year. Still, the Sox expected to have so much pitching depth that he would not be overused. How did this work out?

So with all the moves made, the Sox were now the clear favorites to repeat as AL East champions and challenge the Indians for American League supremacy. Things went bad right from the start as Tyler Thornberg, starter Drew Pomeranz and David Price all went down with injuries in Spring Training. Pomeranz was expected back early in the regular season but Price and Thornburg would be out a long…long time. This was not good considering Thornburg was supposed to replace Koji Uehara as the top set-up man to Craig Kimbrel. If that wasn’t bad enough, a strange flu bug struck the team late in Spring Training that wiped out half the team and the coaching staff.

The season began at home against Pittsburgh with the team still reeling from the flu bug, the signs of greatness were there when pre-season Rookie of the Year lock Andrew Benintendi struck a 3 run homer and Rick Porcello pitched into the seventh inning to earn his first victory of the year. Two days later Chris Sale made his Sox debut by tossing 7 shutout innings, scattering just three singles while striking out seven, the team winning on a walkoff home run by Sandy Leon. Trouble was brewing as Mookie Betts, Robbie Ross Jr, Mitch Moreland and Brock Holt were all out with the flu, Ross so bad he had to be quarantined for 2 weeks. One day after the walkoff, Hanley Ramirez was claimed too by the flu. During the game against the Detroit Tigers, Pablo Sandoval hit a 3 run home run but the bullpen faltered and lost it. One day later, Joe Kelly, John Farrell and Brian Butterfield all got knocked out by the epidemic. Even announcer Dave O’Brien had to call in sick as well. The Sox showed almost no life offensively the first two weeks of the season but many claimed the flu bug had everyone out of sorts.

Turns out it wasn’t the flu that was the problem. Despite hitting the 3 run homer in Detroit, Pablo Sandoval performed miserably. Both Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts weren’t hitting as well as they were the previous year and Hanley Ramirez wasn’t hitting at all. The offensive woes were compounded in April by the fact Rick Porcello and Steven Wright began to stink up the mound. Not only that, Drew Pomeranz was as inconsistent as it got, routinely being pulled after throwing 100 pitches in 5 or 6 innings. The bullpen chugged along nicely even without Carson Smith and Tyler Thornburg which kept the team afloat. The offensive woes culminated on April 27 when Masahiro Tanaka and the New York Yankees beat Sale with a complete game, 87 pitch, shut-out. If that wasn’t bad enough, Pablo Sandoval hurt his knee and was placed on the Disabled List on April 26th, the day before the Tanaka disaster. The Sox couldn’t rely on Brock Holt because he was out with concussion issues, so third base became a black hole offensively at this point. Before the month was out, an ominous note that the team wasn’t unified began on April 21st against the Baltimore Orioles. Earlier in the season manager Buck Showalter sarcastically insulted the Red Sox for going through the flu bug and during this game, Manny Machado unintentionally/intentionally spiked Dustin Pedroia at second base. Joe Kelly, John Farrell and Brian Butterfield were visibly pissed off but other members of the team didn’t seem to care. The next day you would think the Sox would come out with a vengeance to avenge Pedroia….the opposite happened. The Os shelled Steven Wright and cruised to an easy win. Then on April 23rd in a game the Sox were leading 6-0, Matt Barnes threw behind Machado’s head leading to his ejection. It should be noted that Barnes was suspended within a matter of days, more on this later. Machado chirped at Pedroia in the dugout but instead of giving him the finger and saying “Oh yeah you deserved it”, Pedroia acted like a whiny brat waiving his arms and saying “That wasn’t me, that was all him!” So not only did Barnes miss the target and had to miss 3 days, his own team “leader” threw him under the bus. The O’s would not forget this.

Things went from bad to worse in May as both Steven Wright and super utility man Marco Hernandez were both lost for the year days apart in early May. Luckily Eduardo Rodriguez was healthy and picked up the slack even though Porcello and Pomeranz were still pitching badly. With Wright out, there became a revolving door of 5th starters including Kyle Kendrick, Brian Johnson and Hector “The Insurance Policy” Velazquez. Then the O’s came to town again where Adam Jones revealed he was hit with racial taunts by an irate fan. Suddenly the entire organization was racist and so was each and every Sox fan….all because one guy shouted at him of course. On May 2nd Chris Sale allowed Jones to get a standing O from the REAL Sox fans to let him know they werent racist…..then threw behind Machado again. Whinebag Showalter complained that Sale be ejected and suspended, but the umpires told him to beat it. The next day Kevin Gausman hit Bogaerts with a curveball unintentionally….AND GOT THE HEAVE HO. It was complete crap then later in the game Jones got tossed for arguing with the same up. Once again the O’s would not forget any of this. Also in May, the Sox dropped to .500 as their offensive woes continued but picked it up in late May, culminating in Brian Johnson pitching a complete game, 5 hit shutout against the Seattle Mariners on May 27th. Also in late May both Pablo Sandoval and David Price came back, but things didn’t look great. On May 20th, Drew Pomeranz struggled badly by throwing 97 pitches just to get through the fourth inning. He was pulled from the game by Farrell and apparently wasn’t happy about it. He was filmed on national television receiving an epic tongue lashing by Farrell in the dug-out and many wondered if trading Anderson Espinoza for him last year was worth it? Still, with the offensive woes and pitching mishaps, the Sox ended May at 29-23 just 2 games behind the New York Yankees.

The June swoon began by getting dominated by both the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees. The Yankees in particular held the Sox to just 1 run in the final 2 games. CC Sabathia began to dominate the Sox for the first time in years. Still, David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez were returning to form, Sale continued his march toward the CY Young award and Drew Pomeranz took the tongue lashing like a man, pitching better in June. All was not well as Mitch Moreland suffered a fractured toe and his batting average plummeted. Hanley Ramirez was nowhere close to the player he was last year, many predicting that without Ortiz to keep him in check, he was back to his 2015 ways. Not only that, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts showed signs of regression after 2 sucessful seasons in a row. Pablo Sandoval was playing like garbage and Sandy Leon was back to being an average catcher. If that wasn’t bad enough, Tyler Thornburg was declared out for the season on June 15th without throwing a single pitch after Spring Training. How was Travis Shaw doing in Milwaukee? Only becoming the second coming of Cecil Cooper by contending for the National League lead in home runs, something the Sox desperately missed. On the same day Thornburg was declared KIA, Sale and the Sox were shut-out 1-0 by the immortal Nick Pivetta of the Philadelphia Phillies. That same game was the beginning of the end for Sandoval. With two outs, the tying run on first and Phillies closer Hector Nerris unusually wild, Sandoval swung and missed half-heartedly at a pitch in the dirt. The second swing was even worse at a pitch way outside. Then the third pitch bounced in the dirt but Sandoval waived and did a .360, walking back to the dugout SMILING as the Phillies had won it 1-0. He was benched and 5 days later was put on the Disabled List with an “ear infection” Smart fans and media personalities saw right through it but to casual fans, the 57 million dollar investment had an earache. Not only that, after a promising start to the season, Eduardo Rodriguez tripped and fell in the bullpen prior to his June 1st start against Baltimore. The mental-midget re-injured his knee, stunk the joint out and went on the Disabled List just like the previous year. He never recovered, going 2-5 the rest of the season with alarming questions about his mental toughness. Then the team began to turn heel thanks to the actions of one man. It was bad enough Pedroia threw Barnes under the bus, but David Price began to piss off everyone. He started by attacking beat writer Evan Drelich earlier in the month, which fans shrugged off because media personalities tend to be annoying. Then during the June 29th game where Price was beating the Minnesota Twins, popular Sox announcer and MLB Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley noticed the linescore of a hideous Eduardo Rodriguez rehab outing in Pawtucket. All he said was “Yuck!” He didn’t call Rodriguez a bum, he didn’t insult anyone’s family, he just noticed how bad Rodriguez pitched and commented on it. That night during the team flight to Toronto apparently David Price said something to him, but nobody revealed what just yet. Still, when you have a bad offense and your supposed ace is acting up, fans started to get very angry.

As the calendar turned to July, fans were growing increasingly upset not only with the team but the production as well. Not only were the Sox displaying a total lack of offense, the NESN broadcasts were almost unbearable to watch due to a variety of reasons. For some reason there was a weird audio discrepancy every time they cut from the game to the studio, their sideline reporters usually just spouted nonsense nobody cared about and they would play an annoying Southwest commercial at least FIVE times during the broadcast, further making fans groan. Then came the big week just after the All-Star break. After “rehabbing” his “ear infection” for 3 weeks, Pablo Sandoval was designated for assignment on July 14th meaning the Sox had 5 days to release him, trade him, bring him back or keep him in Pawtucket. That night the Sox walked off on the Yankees 5-4 but that was the best it got. The next night the Sox were beaten in SIXTEEN innings scoring just 1 measly run. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Sox had to play a double-header the next day and they were shut-out by Sabathia again 3-0. The Sox had played 25 innings and scored 1 total run. David Price rescued the Sox by pitching a shutout in the nightcap, winning 3-0…but the Sox had scored 4 total runs in 34 innings. Then on July 19th the Sox officially released Sandoval. The 57 million dollar man was done and over in the National League, Travis Shaw was strong arming the Milwaukee Brewers to NL Central contention. Dombrowski made a monumental mistake and he knew it. On July 22nd, Price got lit up by the LA Angels and the very next day the details came out about his confrontation with Eckersley. Apparently he chewed him out in front of the team, mocked him and dismissed him to thunderous CHEERS from the team. Fans were ready to riot because not only was the Sox offense inept, Price mocks a beloved player/analyst. The Sox were on a road trip but Price was scheduled to start July 28th at Fenway. Fans were waiting for him when he got there….but he never showed. That morning he was placed on the Disabled List as most of Red Sox nation THUNDERED with boo’s, “you gotta be kiddin” and “you coward!” tweets and comments. But then the Sox somehow caught fire.

Dombrowski made 3 moves that solidified the team in August. He brought over clubhouse guy Eduardo Nunez from the San Fransisco Giants (an unofficial trade for Sandoval because that’s where the fat man ended up) and called up 20 year old infield prospect Rafael Devers. He also traded prospects to the New York Mets for their closer Addison Reed. For 3 weeks in August, Devers, Reed and Nunez solidified the team and put them in position to win the AL East. Then on August 24th it all fell apart as the Sox lost 4 in a row to the Indians and the pissed off Orioles, swept Toronto then lost 3 out of 4 to the New York Yankees to end the month. The Yankees didn’t just beat the Red Sox, they were shutting them completely down. They made moves of their own to contend for the AL East led by AL ROY and potential MVP Mike Judge and the trade deadline acquisition of former closer David Robertson and Oakland A’s ace Sonny Gray. Actually the one game the Sox won out of the four was the one started by scrap heap pickup Doug Fister, who’s surprising August kept the team in first as Chris Sale began to fade.

From September 4 to September 27 the Sox played nothing but bad teams. The Blue Jays, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland A’s came and went…..and the Sox STILL couldn’t put the Jays away. The problem was Devers had cooled off, Nunez got hurt and was in and out of the lineup, Pedroia had a bum knee, Moreland had a bad toe, Ramirez had something wrong with his shoulder and Bogaerts took a fastball to the wrist on July 6th and couldn’t hit well the rest of the season. The pitching began to fade by mid-September as all the extra inning wins the team accumulated taxed not only the bullpen but the starters as well. Sale’s arm was hanging and Price came back once the heat died down to become a relief pitcher…..exactly what Sox brass wanted when they paid 217 million dollars for him. Still, through it all the Sox survived September and somehow clinched the Division with one day left in the season to earn a date with the Houston Astros in the ALDS.

Whether or not John Farrell keeps his job after all the idiotic decisions he makes day in and day out depends on how long they last. Back to back first round sweeps almost guarantees he’s gone. Still, the Sox went from the flu to first and won the division title back to back years for the first time in team history. Let’s see how October goes before writing the obituary.