An Even Uglier Start to the Baseball Season

Before the season opened, pundits seemed to forget all about last year, as so many of them picked Boston to win the Al East, or the AL pennant, or even the World Series. And then, of course, the Sox went to Arlington to open the season against the team that actually played in last year’s series, and got swept. Bad start.

What was worse, was the fact that they opened 2011 just as they had played most of 2010, without an effective bullpen. Bard blew a save after Boston had rallied on opening day. Then in game two we were reminded that the starters hadn’t given the pen much of a cushion last summer. Lackey opened 2011 pitching worse than he had most of last year, and that means he was awful, because he was typically pretty lousy throughout 2010. His first start this year, he couldn’t get through four innings and let in close to ten runs. Game three Buckholz looked bad, Pap gave up a run, and the Boston bats went to sleep, as the Rangers got out their brooms. Bad.

OK, so Texas was hot, and they did win the pennant last year. But then, the Sox went to Cleveland and without going through all the gory details, let’s just sum it up by noting that they got swept again. By the Indians! That’s worse. Way worse. And so 2011 opened with the Sox going 0-6, and generally looking pathetic. There were a couple optimistic notes hidden deep inside this losing streak. One- Lester pitched a great game in Cleveland – seven shutout innings, but the Sox could not managed to support him with even a single run. Two – Papi looks better in April than he has for the past couple years. So I hope that’s an indication that he will not need until August to warm up. Three – Pedroia is back, hitting well and serving as the team’s sparkplug. Except there is no gas in the engine right now, so the spark plug has nothing to ignite.

It’s a long season, and I figure that the bats will come alive at some point. But what about the pitching, especially the bullpen? Is there any indication that they will round into form? It’s particularly troubling that the two highly paid free agent signings – Dice-K and Lackey – look like they should be throwing down at Pawtucket. I mean, why not just hang onto Lowe and Arroyo, and save a couple hundred million bucks?

Early indications are that the Haters Ball will be hosted in Rochester for the foreseeable future. Speaking of which, the Ball is scheduled for the third weekend in June, so readers need to make their plans now. The present plan is to hope that the Cs are still playing ball late into June, so we can ignore the Sox for the next couple months, and give them time to get their act together. If that fails, there’s always whisky.