Resurgent Red Sox

I'll admit it - I've done my share of panicking already this season. The Sox haven't been pretty, they haven't been smooth. However, I checked the standing today, and guess what - we're not only leading the division sans Nomah and Trotsky, we have the second-best record in baseball! Only the Anaheim Angels, playing in the eviscerated AL West have won more games than the Red Sox's 25 W's. It's not a beautiful brand of baseball they're playing. Shoddy defense, suspect sinkerballer, red-eye flights and sometimes sleepy play. The way they look out there some days bespeaks a team that deserves to be 17-25, not 25-17. But they're winning. Guess I can't complain.

A few stats 1/4 of the through the season:
- Team batting average .264, 9th in the AL.
- Team on-base percentage .347, 5th in the AL.
- Team home runs 54, 3rd in the AL.
- Team runs scored 205, 6th in the AL.
- Team ERA 3.55, 1st in the AL.
- Team walks & hits per inning pitched 1.26, 1st in the AL.
- Record against now-above .500 teams: 8-7
- Record against now-below .500 teams: 17-10


Synopsis: it's the W's that count. Ugly baseball can turn beautiful with a little focus and a pennant race (and the return of two starters). The Yankees are below us in every one of the major pitching and batting categories - it's our last-in-the-league defense that's our Achille's heel. Our head-to-head games have been key, but we've played few of the same teams; the Yankees have played 19 games against the AL West compared to our 3. The unsung heroes of the early season are the Boston bullpen, who have slammed the door in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings - and always in the 9th - and given the batters an opportunity to come back in almost every game. If this post is disorganized and hectic, it's because it's 3am and I should be sleeping, and because it reflects the Sox, who are winning with some ugly baseball. Here's to October!