The Red Sox have the fourth-best record in baseball
by Keagan Stiefel
15 minutes ago
If you’ve seen the Boston Red Sox rank among the best teams in Major League Baseball through 35 games, raise your hand.
LIAR!
No, we’re not calling you because everyone expected Boston to be bad. The Red Sox cannot be expected to be as competitive as they have been given what they have had to deal with. We can exclusively point to injuries as a reason why they shouldn’t be in the position they’re in, as starting centre-back Adam Duvall is on the 60-day injured list after his hot start, the front-row starter Garrett Whitlock has been on and off IL due to multiple ailments and bench/enclosure plays like Yu Chang, Adalberto Mondesi, Kutter Crawford, Zack Kelly and Joely Rodriguez are all stuck on the shelf.
Despite all that, the Red Sox hold the fourth-best record in MLB at 21-14.
They’re tougher than a $2 steak.
Only three baseball teams have a better record than the Red Sox through Saturday, the Tampa Bay Rays (27-7), Atlanta Braves (23-11) and Baltimore Orioles (22-11). Oh yes, we forgot to mention that two of the three teams are in their division. Bad luck, but not the end of the world.
This unfortunate nugget has provided the Red Sox with a solid vantage point as they attack the season. Boston can’t control what the teams in its division do, it can only control its own destiny. That was the obvious motivation, as the Red Sox rebounded from their horrendous showing against the American League East in 2022 (26-50) to start 7-7 against divisional opponents.
How did they do it? Well they have everything you could ask for. There are newcomers like Kenley Jansen, Masataka Yoshida, Duvall and Justin Turner who have stepped into everyday roles and flourished. There are also the youngsters returning from a year ago who did full 180s like Jarren Duran, Josh Winckowski, Connor Wong and Crawford. Chris Sale and Christian Arroyo are healthy and contributing. Then there are franchise cornerstones, like Rafael Devers, Alex Verdugo and Kiké Hernández, who play as, well… franchise cornerstones.
Has everything been sunny and rainbow? Absolutely not. Sale took a little while to get going, Hernández struggled on the pitch and those fucking injuries just won’t stop.
But neither did the Red Sox, and that’s why they’re one of the best teams in baseball.
