Before we start breaking down the Red Sox championship season, I find it incredibly important to let you all know what I’ve been up to. Full disclosure: it’s been a pretty rough month and a half. On September 13, I left the United States and traveled six and a half long hours to Amsterdam because I am studying abroad in The Netherlands. You really don’t appreciate life until you sit on an airplane for that long, going to one of the most beautiful countries in the world, eating those awful airplane meals. Delta—I need more than a tiny piece of dry chicken and a few green beans. I’m sorry to ramble, I know you don’t need to deal with how crappy this past month and a half has been for me, traveling weekend after weekend and enjoying some of the most beautiful cities in the world. Real struggle. Anyways, let’s kick it back to March 29.
The Red Sox entered the 2018 season with high hopes and off of the best record in preseason play. The buzz of the team’s big changes, namely Alex Cora and J.D. Martinez, have the Fenway Faithful ready for a new season. A new chance to get what the team has come so close to getting after two straight division titles, only to fall short in the first round both times.
Opening Day should be a breeze since the Sox are taking on the lowly Tampa Bay Rays. With Chris Sale on the mound, there is absolutely no way the Sox drop Game 1…
WRONG! After Eduardo Nunez smacked an inside the park homer to make it 3-0, all Joe Kelly had to do was give up less than four runs and give big Craig Kimbrell the ball in the ninth. It’s so easy, Drew Pomeranz could have done it.
In 1/3 innings, Joe Kelly gave up one hit, three walks, and four EARNED RUNS. Now I know what you’re thinking. That last number on Kelly’s line must be how much regular season wins the Sox had—he predicted it—Nope. That’s his ERA after Opening Day. This man managed to single-handled blow a 4-0 lead and the worst part is that he didn’t even get the loss, which was given to Carson Smith after he allowed two runs to follow Kelly’s performance.
This can’t be good for the Sox. I know I was freaking out after Opening Day and worried about what was to come. Thankfully, we didn’t have much to worry about.
Well, maybe we did with Martinez. Through these first 10 games, Martinez only hit one home run. Despite his slow start, the Red Sox went on to take the next three games in that series—the start of a nine-game win streak that included a sweep of the Marlins and Rays. Xander Bogaerts smacked the first homer of the season for the Sox against Andrew Kittridge in Game 3 of the season and the Red Sox rotation started the season off with 18 scoreless innings—a sign of good things to come for the 2018 World Champs.
The Sox were 9-1 through the first 10 games of the season and the haters started to chirp. The usual here was “wait until you play a good team”. Well, next week on Sox Weekly the Yankees travel to Fenway for the first chapter of the 2018 rivalry as well as a trip to the West Coast to take on Shohei Otani and the Angels. Remember, at this point of the season the Angels are the most feared team in the league thanks to Ohtani and aren’t the 80-82 team they ended up being—to think people believed the Angels were the team to beat!
