Wow, what a season! And good thing for my blood pressure, It’s not over yet! Going into the 2011 campaign, The Boston Red Sox were dubbed the best Red Sox team of all time. Everybody was expecting big things this year after signing franchise players like, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez. But 12 games into the season, everything came crashing down.
The Red Sox started the 2011 season by going 2-10 in their first 12 games, and were the sole occupants of the AL East basement. Things were looking bleak, and skeptics were a’plently. When all of a sudden they broke out of their funk and started winning games. They won 8 of their next 9 and finished the month 11-15. They continued to roll winning 32 of their next 45 and climbed all the way up into first place in the division. Maybe this really was the team destined to restore greatness in beantown? Que the breakdown. Like the 5:45 to Union, the injury bug arrived right on time in Boston. And the surging Red Sox dropped 6 of the next 7, and found themselves in a battle for first with their biggest division rivals. They keep pace with the Yankees going 20-6 through the month of July despite the injuries. And while narrowly holding the top spot over New York in the beginning of August, the second wave of injuries hit. Suddenly their DL list looked like their starting line-up, and their starting line-up looked like a minor league team.
Things went from bad to worse, as Josh Beckett, the Red Sox best pitcher, joined the rest of his team on the injured list. And since his departure, The Red Sox have dropped faster than a Randy Johnson slider. They fell out of the division race by dropping 9 of 11 and 5 straight. And are currently holding on to the wild card spot by only 4 games over the surging Rays. They finally got a day off to try and stop the bleeding, before a 10 game home stand. And of their remaining 16 games, 4 of them are against the Rays…
Can the Red Sox pull it together and solidify a playoff spot?
Can they get healthy enough to make that postseason spot count?
Can they become that team of destiny Red Sox Nation was anticipating in pre-season?
My faith has been beaten, but not broken.
And this Red Sox fan thinks they can.
What do you think?
