The Boston Red Sox are three games out of a postseason spot as the Major League Baseball season nears the All-Star break.
If you’ve missed the first three months of the season, you’re probably confused as to why that’s worthy of a story. After all, it’s the Red Sox. They made the playoffs last season and were a trendy World Series pick this year.
Of course, they’ve been, arguably, the most embarrassing team in the league for 90% of the season. It’s been a real race between the Red Sox and New York Mets, if we’re being honest. At the moment, the Mets are in the lead.
But it hasn’t been that way all season.
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The Sox fired manager Alex Cora less than a month into the season after an abysmal start. Star outfielder Roman Anthony has missed most of the year with a finger injury that the team initially said should sideline him for only a few weeks.
Ace Garrett Crochet hasn’t made a start in months, and he was recently moved to the 60-day IL.
The team, as of a few weeks ago, was at the bottom of the American League. GM Craig Breslow was about to be fired. The entire roster was set to be sold off at the deadline. Fans at Fenway were chanting “Sell the team” every other game.
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And now, because of a well-timed winning streak — and because the American League is laughably bad this season — those same Red Sox are on the cusp of a playoff spot at the halfway point.
Does a down season make a run worth it?
Let’s go ahead and dive into the numbers, because they are truly stunning.
- Only five of the 15 team in the American League are currently above .500. To compare, nine teams in the NL are above .500.
- Only six AL teams have a positive run differential. Six. Five of the six teams ahead of the Red Sox in the standings all have a negative differential. The Red Sox (+17) are one of the few teams in the green.
- The Yankees, considered the top team in the league for most of the season, are 2-11 in their last 13 games.
- The Seattle Mariners currently lead the AL West with a record of 47-46. They would be four games out of a playoff spot in the National League.
- The Red Sox would be a whopping eight games out of a playoff spot in the National League.
- The Miami Marlins (51-42) have gone 25-8 since June 1 and have won six straight series. They are currently third in their own division. They’d be the second-best team in the entire American League.
Just a historically bad year for the American League, obviously. And, because of that, teams like the Red Sox (42-48), Tigers (42-50), Orioles (42-51) and A’s (41-51) are all within legit striking distance of a playoff spot.
The Red Sox are, perhaps, the most surprising of all. They fired half their coaching staff back in April, including Alex Cora. They’ve essentially lost their ace and best all-around player for the season. They are 17-27 at Fenway Park this season, which is impossibly bad given that park.
Yet, the team has rallied behind an elite pitching rotation even without Crochet, the best closer in the AL in Aroldis Chapman, and an All-Star season from 34-year-old Willson Contreras.
It also hasn’t hurt that Caleb Durbin — the player acquired to replace Alex Bregman last winter — has been among the best third baseman in baseball over the last month after an abysmal start to the season.
Credit to Durbin — and the rest of the roster — for somewhat turning it around.
But is it a mirage? With the trade deadline looming, that’s the question the Red Sox — and the rest of the mediocre clubs in the American League — will have to grapple with over the next few weeks.
Does “going for it” because the league is in the midst of an embarrassing season make sense? Some would argue teams, like the Red Sox, would just be delaying the inevitable by doing that.
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Others will counter that by saying you play games to win, and you grind through seasons to play in October.
It’s a fascinating debate, and one that is very much alive at the moment only because the American League is laughably mediocre.
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