To any of you “Third and Long is flooding my Facebook feed with Red Sox blogs” people out there, I have one thing to say: Appreciate greatness when you see it. In case you’ve missed it, the Boston Red Sox, under first-year manager Alex Cora, are off to a 17-2 start––the best start through 19 games since 1987 (Milwaukee Brewers).
Some more impressive statistics:
Top-notch rotation: Before last night’s start from Drew Pomeranz, the Sox’s starting pitchers had hurled 12 wins and only 1 loss with a combined 1.98 ERA.
Smoking hot bats: The Red Sox lead the MLB in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage at .292/.362/.496.
Blowing teams out: Boston has a +70 run differential (runs scored – runs allowed), good for the fifth-highest in modern era.
Avoiding the K: The offense has the lowest strikeout percent percentage in the Majors at 16.3%.
One final obscure statistic: Alex Cora is the first manager since 1988 to win 17 of the team’s first 19 games in his first season.
It’s safe to say that Manager Cora is doing a whole lot better than John Farrell. Cora has taken a nearly identical roster to last year’s team (which went 10-9 through its first 19 games), and turned it into a division leading, World Series-looking ball club.
While we at Third and Long unfortunately don’t have eyes inside the Red Sox clubhouse, speculation is our specialty, and I would speculate that Manager Cora has lit a fire under this team that doesn’t look like it’ll fizzle out any time soon. Judging by the fact that we haven’t heard much from last year’s troublemakers (i.e. David Price, Dustin Pedroia, Hanley Ramirez), it appears that Cora has also earned the respect of his players, something that John Farrell reportedly struggled mightily to do. Cora was a bench coach in Houston, so one of the expectations coming in was that he would be a better personality to have in the dugout than Manager John. Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he seems to be well-liked among Boston’s ballplayers.
Projections are always fun to make and critique, but sometimes you just have to sit back and admire good baseball when you see it, and the Red Sox are playing some damn good baseball right now.
P.S. In a recent blog, I predicted that the Sox would beat the 29-7 benchmark set by the Yanks in 1939 for best win-loss record through 36 games. Not to jump the gun, but I may have hit on that call. Time will tell.
(Statistics via USA TODAY Sports, Elias Sports Bureau, and MLB.com)
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