Red Sox Playoff Hopes Not Done, Time is Running Out

This year’s Red Sox team is like a puzzle.

It’s really hard to figure out and there’s always a few pieces missing in order for it to be complete.

The Sox have been plagued by injuries all year which resulted in inconsistent batting lineups filled with many Triple-A players from Pawtucket. Boston has had a major league-high 22 players on the disabled list this year. But the second half of the season was supposed to be a fresh start, and for a quick moment it actually looked promising. Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Dustin Pedroia came off the disabled list trying to get this team back to a respectable standing.

Crawford, who has yet to show Boston his value, went 5-for-10 and scored six runs in his first three games back. Could it be that things were finally starting to turn around for the Sox?

Nope. Crawford is back to his old habits now and is 0-for-14 since July 21.

Ellsbury and Pedroia are slowly adapting to being back, but of course when two of Boston’s All-Stars (and I use that term loosely) get back into the lineup, they lose another All-Star to injury as David Ortiz, their best player this season, was sent to the DL with an Achilles injury.

But if you put things in perspective, the Red Sox really shouldn't be 49-50 and 10.5 games back in the AL East. Boston is ranked second in the league in runs scored, 485, just trailing the Rangers by a few.

Why? Because they pile it on when they’re playing bad teams yet can’t score more than three runs against an elite team like Texas.

So yes, the lack of offensive production surely is to blame for some of Boston’s issues this season, but we all know the real problem is the pitching.

And when I talk about the pitching please exclude Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront from that list. They’ve been the only reliable (and I use that term loosely) starters this season. From Buchholz, that is expected. From Doubront, that isn’t.

Doubront, 10-5 with a 4.54 ERA, has the highest number of wins by any Red Sox pitcher. In his last outing he was awful, allowing a career-high six runs on eight hits en route to a 9-1 loss to the Rangers. Besides that, in regards to this Red Sox season, Doubront has been fairly consistent throughout the year.

However, if I would’ve told you in March that Doubront would be one of the best pitchers in the Red Sox rotation you most likely would have laughed at me and went to Popeye’s for your fix of fried chicken. What about Josh Beckett and Jon Lester? One would think that after last year's embarrassment these two would step up as leaders and control the Sox destiny.

Oh, they’re controlling the destiny alright … and not in a good way.