I Declare That Not A Good Start

So I don’t think I’m out on a limb there with that title.  Still, rather than try to dig into assorted cliches, justifications or excuses let’s just try to break it down a bit.

Stuff That We Were Worried About That Went OK;

JD Martinez - The Sox need the big DH to be an offensive star if they are going to do anything this year.  The early returns after a fairly mellow spring are very good.  6 for 12, 3 RBI and the club’s only homer is definitely doing his part.  Very good news indeed.

The Bullpen - Maybe this needs to be somewhere else because I’m not sure if people were concerned about the bullpen or not.  I think it was more an unknown than anything else.  Having said that I think the performance this weekend was very encouraging.  Hirokazu Sawamura in particular impressed but Matt Barnes, Austin Brice, Garrett Whitlock and Philips Valdez all threw well.  Josh Taylor obviously was terrible on Sunday but otherwise the bullpen looked good. Matt Andriese had some struggles finding the zone on Friday though Lou Merloni fairly made the point that having missed the last week of Spring Training some rust was to be expected.  His outing looks a lot different if Kike Hernandez plays that double play ball cleanly though.

Some of the Starters (yeah I know) - The fact is that both Not That Nasty Nate and Tanner Houck pitched very well in their first starts.  Had the defense backed them up a bit better their lines would have even looked better.  If Eovaldi can be healthy I think he should be expected to be effective and Houck looked very promising as the depth starter he is being asked to be for now.

Stuff That We Were Worried About That Went Not OK;

The Defense - The most glaring weakness on this team was exposed in the worst possible ways.  Not only was it a rough weekend it was a rough weekend at inopportune times.  It’s one thing to make errors, it’s another to make them when you can end innings with runners on base in close games and that is what happened both Friday and Saturday.

Strikeouts - Even those of us who feel the offense can be productive have to recognize the Sox are going to be prone to the strikeout.  That is going to lend itself to the slump particularly when they pile up.  Bobby Dalbec (0 for 10, 5Ks), Hunter Renfroe (0 for 7, 3Ks), Franchy Cordero (0 for 5, 3Ks) (h/t Jay) did not exactly hit the ground running.  It’s like a lineup of Brian Daubachs, when they roll it’s going to be fun, when they don’t it’s not.

Some of the Starters - Oh yeah, him.  Garrett Richards did not come out firing on all cylinders which was not what the Sox needed after dropping the first two games of the series.  It’s one start but he struggled in Fort Myers particularly with his control and the Sox can’t afford to be giving away too many starts.

Stuff We Felt Good About That Went Not OK;

Hitters Not Named JD Martinez - Mabye the biggest problem this weekend was the absence of offense. Xander Bogaerts, Kike Hernandez, Alex Verdugo and Rafael Devers combined for two hits.  The Sox aren’t winning many games if those five guys contribute nothing offensively.  The only remotely optimistic note is that Kike drew a couple of walks continuing an improvement he showed in March.

So anyway, it’s one ugly weekend to be sure but it was only one weekend.  It won’t get easier with Tampa coming to town.  159 to go.