A Hot [Opening Week] Mess

It happened last year and it's happening again this year: After a successful, feel-good Opening Day, the Red Sox FAIL comes out in force. Big Papi's batting below .200, timely hits are few and far between and the bullpen ought to be condemned by the Board of Health. Beckett and Lester were far from stellar and, while they got some fine work by Lackey and Wake, neither has a W to show for it, thanks to both the bumbling bullpen and the LOST/Gilligan's Island approach to offense. I'll concede that the Yankees are a tough opponent, but the Royals? Puh-lease! Last night's game was one they should have WON. Instead, the bats were a one-inning wonder and the 'pen had me wishing all the starters would just throw complete games all the time.

It's early in the season--they haven't been playing games that count for a week yet--but the disturbing patterns of last season are undeterred by the changes made in the offseason. Not a single starter has a win yet. With Beckett going up against Greinke tonight, that drought looks to continue. I'd love to be proven wrong on that.

Papi's been getting a lot of heat from the fans and the media about his struggles at the plate. While I understand the frustration and the fear that his April 2010 will be a replication of his April and early May 2009, Papi's not the only one at fault for the team's lack of clutch hitting. Sure, as a full-time DH, hitting is his only contribution to the team's play, but his teammates need to step it up too. Without Jason Bay, the team needs to distribute their offensive production more evenly among its lineup. Either that, or aggressively pursue, and perhaps give up some prized talent, for a big bat like Adrian Gonzalez.

The bullpen was the strength of the team at this time last season, while Papi was in his horrendous slump, Beckett and Lester were getting hammered routinely, and Dice-K was suffering Post-WBC-itis. The 'pen and Jason Bay carried them through April and May. Toward the end of the season, the 'pen started to unravel and Billy Wagner was added to give them a boost. Wagner, of course, was a rental and when he and Saito both left via free agency for Atlanta, the Sox had to find two arms to replace them, while holding on to the struggling Ramirez, Delcarmen, and even Okajima. Of the arms they chose, Atchison spend two years pitching in Japan, where the competition is considerably lighter than in MLB, and Schoenweiss, who was canned by an NL team in Spring Training. Yes, good bullpen arms are hard to find, but this bullpen could find the Sox looking up at both the Yanks and the Rays.

While I never count the Sox out, I'm not ready to count them in yet either. Not until they start playing better baseball. That means Drew and Ells need to protect the plate with two strikes (and not run into outs like last night), the whole lineup needs to hit better with RISP, and the bullpen needs to locate and execute their pitches so that the starters can start getting Ws, especially when they pitched like Lackey and Wake did this week.

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!!