While it would be easy now to suggest that this is all a result of the balancing forces in baseball, we know better. The Red Sox are something far closer to their last nine games than they are to their first 12. None of that means the Red Sox will pitch at their current pace for the balance of 2011, but they are more likely to go 8-1 again at some point this season than they are to go 2-10. And based on the current 21-game stretch, they are not likely to spend the entire season essentially playing something akin to .500 baseball, even if in far less extreme samples.
There’s just too much talent here. Too much pitching, too much versatility on offense and too much pride.
“We’re playing good baseball,” igniter Dustin Pedroia told reporters after yesterday’s 7-0 win against the Angels. “The pitching is better, the hitting is better and the defense is better. That’s it. There’s no secret.”
So true. During the Red Sox' last nine games (8-1) compared to their first 12 (2-10), they have scored more runs per game (5.1 to 3.8) while seeing significant upticks in batting average (.260 to .224), on-base percentage (.350/.320), and slugging percentage (.416/.349).
The improvements, not surprisingly, are even more drastic when it comes to the pitching. Though the first dozen games, the Sox had a hideous 6.79 ERA. Over the last nine? A dazzling 1.65. They've allowed nearly five fewer runs per game (1.8 to 6.6), allowed 18 fewer homers (3/21), and held opponents to a .186 batting average after they were hit at a .272 clip through those first 12 games.
Now comes the truly encouraging part: as well as the Red Sox have played over the last 10 days or so, they can play better. Their offense still isn’t producing at the level it could be. The last two games of the Angels series gave some glimpse as to how potent the Sox could be, though it is becoming clearer that this is not the kind of explosive offense the Sox possessed in, say, 2003 or 2004.
