Confirmed
Conf
When matching preseason projections with the ultimate reality, one team that fell the farthest from grace had to be the 2018 defending World Series Champions. Sure, Boston finished six games over .500, but they fell far short of a predicted repeat AL East pennant. Their lineup heading into spring training has the same holes leftover over from last season, plus a big one added. Gone from the Red Sox lineup is Mookie Betts. In place of him is Alex Verdugo. Boston also sent David Price west to Los Angeles.
A new coach and a lot of question marks surround a team with a seemingly heavy number of underachievers in their batting order and pitching ranks. It will be very interesting to see how well Boston can compete in the very tough AL East. Boston is still a team with a solid top-half their order. However, the bats weaken from the sixth spot down. The bench doesn't have a name contributor and the pitching staff is full of more question marks than there are in the batting cage. The summary for Boston heading into would be question marks, lots of question marks.
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Game | Score | Starting Pitcher | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
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9/26 @ ATL | W 8-2 |
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9/25 @ ATL | L 7-8 |
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9/24 vs BAL | L 1-13 |
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9/23 vs BAL | W 9-1 |
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9/22 vs BAL | W 8-3 |
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Contents
Things will be a little rough without Mookie Betts, but life has to go on for the Boston Red Sox. This is still an outstanding lineup but will need some of their players to carry over success from last season. Boston will have some shuffling to do at the top of the lineup with Betts gone, and it is likely we see Andrew Benintendi or even Alex Verdugo leadoff for most games. J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers, and Xander Bogaerts will be the heart of the order guys. This also sets up for a nice lefty-righty mix of hitters before getting to the back half of the order. Christian Vazquez should dominate at-bats as the catcher, while Jackie Bradley will follow. Now depending on the opposing pitcher, we will see a mix of Kevin Pillar, Michael Chavis, and Jose Peraza.
With the outfield being all left-handed, the Boston Red Sox went out and grabbed Kevin Pillar to help give them a right-handed bat in the outfield. He will start more against left-handed pitching where Benintendi or Verdugo will sit.
Rafael Devers is set to hit third in the order this season. He is coming off of a breakout year, and the Red Sox will need him to continue to play well as the offense will need to make up some of Betts' production.
With the Red Sox and Dodgers trade going through, Betts will leave the Red Sox outfield. With Alex Verdugo coming over in return, he will slide right into a starting right field gig. However, he might see time off against left-handed pitching.
The 2018 Boston Red Sox won 108 regular-season games and would run through elite teams in the postseason. They were stacked with Mookie Betts and JD Martinez, who led this offense. Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts also broke out.
The 1932 Boston Red Sox won just 43 games, giving them a win percentage of 27%. The pitching was terrible, and the offense really struggled. Given the mixture, they would go onto finish dead last in the division.
Carl Yastrzemski played over 3,000 games for the Boston Red Sox, which is the most all-time. He had over 3,400 hits and 450 home runs in a Sox uniform. He played from 1961 to 19832 and made 18 All-Star appearances.