This post is going to be a temporary moment of rage...
The Boston Red Sox are not the Wild Card favorite. They are certainly not the favorite to win the AL East, I think that ship has passed them by this past week. I know that every team, even the good ones, go through phases during the season when no one can hit, no one can pitch, and as a result of this, the team performs far below expectations. Right now it looks like the Red Sox are going to drop another game behind the Yankees to fall to 3.5 games back. No, this is not an insurmountable deficit, but it is also a 6.5 game swing since the All Star Break...which was 2 weeks ago. This is not a bad team, its hard to say the 2nd best team in the AL East is bad, but there is something they lack...and identity.
Pre-2004 The Red Sox were lovable losers. They fought, they scrapped, and us fans always said 'This is the Year' and they always disappointed in September and October. In 2003 and 2004 they were a band of idiots. They gave their middle finger to the world and said 'We are going to win if it fucking kills us'. They did. Trot Nixon's disgusting looking helmet matched his filthy jersey every night. Johnny Damon looked like a caveman and behaved as such. Ortiz and Manny were the comedians. Millar was the Cowboy. There were veterans who saw this as their last shot, there were young guys looking to make a difference. They grew together. Pedro even joined in on the fun. This was a team that saw that being a team and playing their hearts out was the only path to success. They did it with grit...they were determined to win at all costs. In 2007 they were the favorites. They were a combo of the old guard looking for a win and young kids who had good guidance. Schilling was on his way out but he was a leader. Varitek, the Captain, had shown his age, but he was the man in the clubhouse. Mike Lowell brought that dirtdog attitude of the 2004 team, same with Pedroia and Ellsbury. Ortiz and Manny were still Ortiz and Manny, and the team thrived on being the team to beat all season. They were confident, cocky, but they wanted it.
This team does not want it. You can see it in their at-bats, you can see it in their defense, you can see it on the mound when Beckett or Lester are not out there. They act as if they were robbed of something that was rightfully theirs last year and they are ripping apart at the seams because of it. Dice-K decided that Japan and the WBC was more important than winning a World Series and now he is public enemy number 1. Ortiz wants it, but isn't the same Big Papi. Pedroia and Youk still have the intensity. Lowell is old and wants it, but just cant quite do it. Paps is over confident, there is no shortstop to be seen, and Bay hasn't turned up for a game in god knows how long. J.D. is not the player Theo paid for...wait, he was a 30 outfielder who was bound to decline during the contract so they did get what they paid for! Anyways, this years team lacks a spark plug...and it's clear that if they do not find one soon, they will be exiting before anyone thought they would.
It may come down to a 9-17 (soon to be 9-18) record against the AL West. Which is a massive problem that a team of this calibre is capable of playing .333 ball against 2 teams that are not good, one team that only offers offense, and one team that we know will be there every year.
Or, they just suck so bad right now that they are just an inch here or there away from going on a 10-2 run that will vault them up the standings. I don't see it happening soon, but hopefully it will happen when they realize that if they don't..they are an also ran.
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