2019 BOSTON RED SOX ...
CONSISTENT AT BEING INCONSISTENT ...

With basically the same team that finished the season in 2018, the World Series Champion Red Sox flopped in 2019. After they stumbled out of the gate, the Sox were an average team from start to finish. The won 84 games, but finished 19 games out of first, and 12 games out of the wild card. If it weren't for Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts, the Sox would have been forgotten. This club hardly was of any interest to it's fans.

The pitching staff was the Achilles heel of the team. The Sox were 12th in the majors with a respectable 4.53 ERA on the road, but plummeted to 21st with a 4.83 ERA at Fenway Park.

Injuries ravaged the starting rotation with David Price developing a cyst in his wrist and Chris Sale (4.40 ERA) ineffective with a sore elbow. Sale didn't win a game at Fenway until July.

Rick Porcello showed up every fifth day but ranked dead last with a 5.52 ERA. Nathan Eovaldi was out until August and when he finally got the ball, posted only a 5.08 ERA. Only Eduardo Rodriguez was consistent, putting together a 19 win season.

The Sox let Craig Kimbrel walk and started the season without a closer, a move that failed miserably. The bullpen was ugly to open the season, but ended up a middle-of-the-pack 16th in ERA, with a 4.39, but they were near the top of the league in blown saves.

Brandon Workman, however had a phenomenal season. He ranked the best or close to it in the league, in almost every statistical category with a 1.88 ERA, allowing only 29 hits, one home run, 104 strikeouts, and an opponent's batting average of .123 to lead the league.

Christian Vazquez had a good season with 23 home runs. Xander Bogaerts was a force from start to finish, inking a new contract and emerging as the team leader, batting .309 with 52 doubles and 33 HRs.

J.D. MARTINEZ

But it was Rafael Devers' bust-out season that will be remembered. After a lack luster April, he emerged as one of the top players in the majors. He batted .311 with 32 HRs and 115 RBIs, stinging every ball he hit with power, banging out 201 hits. He became the first thirdbaseman in history to have at least 200 hits, 50 doubles and 30 homers in a season.

Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr struggled. Mookie Betts couldn't come close to duplicating his 2018 MVP season, being invisible for much of the year, but still hit .295 with 29 HRs. And J.D. Martinez was in the chase for the triple crown, batting .304 with a team-leading 36 homers.

Things started badly and never got much better. The Sox started the season on the west coast and lost all three series, winning only three games and losing eight. They were in last place and had the worst run differential (minus-26) in all of baseball. Only four teams had made more errors, and the Sox five-man pitching rotation had an ERA of 9.13. 

Mitch Moreland was carrying the team. In all of the Sox wins, Moreland has had the biggest hits. In the first victory in Seattle back on March 29th, Moreland mashed a three-run, pinch-hit homer in the top of the ninth that launched his team over the Mariners, 7-6.

It wasn’t until five days later that the Red Sox would win again, and once again it was Moreland who came up large, with a two-run double in the sixth to tie a game they trailed 3-0 at Oakland on April 3rd. The Sox went on to win, 6-3.

There would be three losses until that next elusive victory. And it was Moreland who ended a gruesome, 11-game, season-opening road trip (3-8) on a winning note when he went deep to right for a solo shot in the seventh that stood up in a 1-0 victory at Arizona.

The win over the Diamondbacks on April 7th, however, highlighted what had been the most consistent element of the Sox. The bullpen was been outstanding. Hector Velázquez got the start, and while he wasn’t stretched out enough to go deep into the game he was great for three innings of work. After him, Brandon Workman, Marcus Walden, Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier pitched very well.

Moreland then took his role as Mr. Clutch to another level, smashing a game-tying homer in the seventh and an equalizing double in the ninth in a walk-off win over Toronto on April 11th. The double set up Rafael Devers for a bouncy, walk-off single through a drawn-in Blue Jays infield that gave the Red Sox a badly-needed 7 to 6 victory.

The next day Eduardo Rodriguez became the first Sox starter to win a game, in beating the Orioles, 6 to 4. After losing the next game, David Price pitched a masterful 4-0 shutout on April 14th. However, the Sox batters continued to slump, and they ended up splitting with Baltimore and headed to the Bronx, to face the injury-plagued Yankees.

In the first game, the Yankees embarrassed Chris Sale (0-4, 8.50 ERA)  by clobbering him, 8-0. The next night the Sox bullpen gave up the lead with Brett Gardner slugging a seventh inning grand slam. The Sox fell to 8 1/2 games behind the Rays.

It probably wasn't going to get any easier when the last place Red Sox traveled down to Florida, to meet the hottest team in baseball, the first place Tampa Bay Rays, for a weekend matchup.  In the first game on April 19th, the lifeless offense clicked into gear, with home runs by Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez, behind another solid performance from Eduardo Rodriguez, for a 6 to 4 win.

In the second game, Rick Porcello turned in his first good outing, while Andrew Benintendi blasted his first career grand slam. With the Sox up 4 to 3 in the ninth inning, Christian Vazquez threw out the runner on first, to chalk the final out of the game. It took 11 inning on Sunday, April 21st, but the Sox swept the Rays, 4 to 3.

While the Sox offense gained some traction the team had scored just 4.2 runs per game thus far, and  ranked 21st in the majors. Mookie Betts however, had started the weekend batting .197 and after recording multiple hits in each game, came back to Fenway batting .244

But the Sox lost a doubleheader to the Detroit Tigers on April 23rd. They rebounded with their first runaway win the next night when they beat the Tigers, 11 to 4. J.D. Martinez had three hits and Eduardo Rodriguez pitched six strong innings, giving up one run and just two hits. The Sox earned a split of the four game series with a 7 to 3 win behind Rick Porcello, who won his first game of the season. Mookie Betts went 2-r-4 with two doubles.

The bats were coming to life. Andrew Benintendi had reached based in 17 of the past 18 games, while hitting .348 and Mookie (.260 BA) was hitting .423 over the past seven games.

The Sox lost two games to the Rays, but finished the month with two great wins. On April 29th, down 4-0, a  walk and two errors loaded the bases for Mookie Betts. He lined an RBI single to right that produced the first of six runs in the inning, that led to a 9 to 4 win over the Oakland A's.

Then the next night, on April 30th, Rick Porcello pitched eight shutout innings, 114 pitches (78 strikes) and gave up only two hits and two walks in his best performance of the season thus far, beating the Oakland A's, 5 to 1. Mookie Betts' first inning homer allowed him to score the 500th run of his young career. The Sox (14-17) started May by sweeping the A's, 7-3 behind homer by Christian Vazquez and Mitch Moreland.

In Chicago, on May 3rd, Chris Sale (1-5)  finally won his first game, beating the White Sox, 6 to 1, in a dominating performance, striking out 10 batters.  Rookie Michael Chavis powered a monster 459 ft homer, the longest by a Red Sox player this season.

The next day, the Sox exploded for nine runs, with two outs in the 3rd inning, sending 14 men to the plate. Ten consecutive batters connected for base hits in a 15 to 2 shellacking of the White Sox. The red hot Michael Chavis continued to make his presence a powerful one, with two home runs.

In the May 5th finale, the Sox offense continued to roll by squashing the White Sox, 9 to 2. Xander Bogaerts' 5th career grandslam was the highlight of the game.

The Sox finished their road trip by taking 2-of-3 in Baltimore. In the second game of the series, on May 7th, the Sox beat the Orioles, 8 to 5, with J.D. Martinez knocking out his 200th career homer. In the final game, Sox pitchers struck out 22 batters over 12 innings, in a game the Sox won 2 to 1, with Chris Sale pitching an immaculate inning (3 strikeouts on  9 pitches).  Jackie Bradley Jr was the star of the game, probably making his greatest catch, in a career of highlight reel catches. In the 11th inning he jumped three feet over the left field fence to rob Trey Mancini of a game winning home run. With the win, the Sox (19-19) reached the .500 mark for the first time since the second game of the season.

Over 17 games from April 19th through May 7th, Mookie Betts (.290 BA) hit .391 with a .500 OBP and .625 slugging mark. He’d taken 14 walks and struck out just eight times during that span, with three homers among his nine extra-base hits during the stretch.

On May 10th, Eduardo Rodriguez was magnificent on the mound, while Mitch Moreland and Rafael Devers homered and led the Sox offense, that crushed the Seattle Mariners, 14-1 at Fenway. The next game, Sandy Leon slugged a three-run homer to highlight an eight run third inning that brought the Sox back from being down 4-0, and beat the Mariners, 9 to 5. In the finale, J.D. Martinez slugged two homers and Devers racked up his third three-hit game in a row, as the Sox crushed Seattle, 11 to 2.

Chris Sale struck out 17 batters in seven innings for a new Sox record, but the Sox lost to the Rockies, 5 to 4 on May 14th. Sox pitchers struck out a total of 24 batters in the game, also a new franchise record. Sale has struck out 41 of the last 76 batters he faced, only walking one. Michael Chavis delivered a thrilling 6 to 5 win over the Rockies the next night, May 15th, when he singled up the middle to score Xander Bogaerts, who opened the 10th inning with a double.

Next, the Houston Astros came to Fenway and the Sox could only manage to take one game. Rick Porcello carried a 1-0 lead into the eighth inning of the first game on May 17th only to give up a home run  to George Springer, that gave Houston a come-from-behind win. The next game saw the Astros cruise to an easy 7 to 3 win.

But in the final game on May 19th, reliever, Marcus Walden (6-0) remained undefeated as the Sox beat the Astros 4 to 3. Chris Sale started and struck out ten, but didn't have his good stuff. He equaled a career high by walking five batters. Xander Bogaerts put the Sox out in front to stay in the seventh inning, with a double that scored Mookie Betts with the go-ahead run.

The Sox then flew up to Toronto and crushed the Blue Jays on May 20th, 12-2, behind five strong innings from David Price. Jackie Bradley Jr (.141 BA) knocked out his first homer of the year and Rafael Devers crushed a homer into the second deck. Two nights later, Michael Chavis (10 HRs) homered in the 13th inning to give the Sox a 6 to 5 win. The Sox took the fourth game from the Jays by an 8 to 2 score behind the great pitching of rookie Ryan Weber on May 23rd. The Sox took 3 of the 4 games and the star was Rafael Devers who homered in each of the first three games.

EDUARDO RODRIGUEZ

The Sox next headed to Houston in third place. The Sox lost 2-of-3 in Houston, but in  the game they did win on May 26th, Eduardo Rodriguez outdueled Justin Verlander and came out on top, 4 to 1. Rafael Devers went 2-for-4  with a home run that snapped a 1-1 tie. In the game before, Devers smacked a beam in the Minute Maid Park rook that cost him a home run, that was projected to go 423 feet. Devers led the majors with 89 hits after the finale. Jackie Bradley Jr finally busted out of his slump, knocking out three home runs in the series. However the Sox left Houston, 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

Back at Fenway on May 27th the Sox crushed the Indians, 12 to 5. J.D. Martinez slugged two home runs and Brock Holt came off the DL and, scored two runs and made a web gem of a catch. But the bullpen then blew a ninth inning lead in the next game and the Sox got blown out in the finale. The one bright spot was Jackie Bradley Jr, who after an ice cold start, was red hot, with 4 home runs in his last 10 games.

And Dustin Pedroia, after another unsuccessful rehab stint in the minors, announced he was going to shut down his baseball comeback and head  home for an indefinite amount of time.

Rafael Devers (.351 BA, 25R and 24 RBIs over 26 games) was named the American League Player of the Month.

The Sox ended May and started June in Yankee Stadium. But things were no better, as the Sox twice blew an early lead and lost the first two games with the Yankees. David Price turned things around for the Sox in the third game on June 2nd however, with an 8 to 5 win, but the Sox were in third place, 8 1/2 games behind New York, after only being 3 games out two weeks ago.

In Kansas City on June 4th, Brock Holt and J.D. Martinez led the Sox to an 8 to 3 win. But the next night belonged the Chris Sale, who pitched a complete game, three hit shutout, 8 to 0. Sale struck out 12 and had an "immaculate" 8th inning, when he struck out the side on nine pitches. Mookie Betts belted a two-run homer to help the Sox sweep the Royals in the third game.

But back at Fenway, things went south for the Sox, losing 3-of-4 to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Sox had a losing record against every team that had a winning record and performed abysmally with runners in scoring position, going 5-for-36 with 25 men stranded against the Rays. They finished the series against the Rays, 7 games behind.

Things didn't start well against the Texas Rangers, who were next to visit Fenway Park. The Sox (34-34) lost the first two games and fell back to .500, but then started a winning streak. On June 12th, they beat the Rangers, 4 to 3, on a bases loaded walk-off walk. In the final game, the Sox slugged five home runs and used the entire bullpen to come back and from 4-0 and 6-1 deficits, to win a 7 to 6 decision.

The next day in Baltimore on June 14th, the Sox slugged six home runs, with J.D. Martinez collecting two of them in a 13-2 rout of the Orioles. In the second game, Martinez homered again in support of Chris Sale, winning 7 to 2. The Sox concluded with a sweep , taking the third game, 8 to 6, in 10 innings, leaving Baltimore 5 1/2 games out of first.

Against the Minnesota Twins, the top team in baseball this year, Rick Porcello pitched seven shutout innings for a 2 to 0 win on June 17th. The next game took 17 innings and the Red Sox stranded 13 runners in scoring position, losing 4 to 3. But in the final game on June 19th the Sox blasted the Twins, 9-4, taking their first meaningful series of the season from one of the top contenders in the American League. Brock Holt drove in three runs and Eduardo Rodriguez (8-4) took the strain off the Sox bullpen from the night before going seven innings.

The Sox returned to Fenway to play, the Blue Jays on June 21st. Chris Sale was on the mound and was off, giving up four runs in the first two innings. But the Sox battled back and tied the game, winning it in extra innings when Christian Vazquez slugged a two-run walk-off homer, giving the Sox a 7-5 win. But the Sox lost the next day to the Jays by blowing a 6-0 lead, with the bullpen giving up four consecutive walks and two with the bases loaded, and then getting blown out in the finale, falling 8 games behind the Yankees.

With the White Sox in town, the Sox earned a 6-5 win in the first game on June 24th, with a walk-off win on a single by Marco Hernandez, and winning again the next day, June 25th. But in the final game, the Sox bullpen squandered another lead and the Sox lost a chance to sweep.

The Sox left for London to meet the Yankees, in the first MLB game ever played in Europe on June 29th, nine games behind them. In the first game of the London Series, Michael Chavis hit two 3-run homers in an absolute slugfest. Unfortunately the Sox lost to the Yankees, 17-14. The Sox lost the next game also, 12-8, as the bullpen could not hold a 6-2 lead in the seventh inning.

The Sox had lost three straight and five of seven, allowing 37 runs on 44 hits with the bullpen responsible for 24 of those runs. Matt Barnes had a 1.99 ERA on June 1st and now carried a 4.93 ERA.

Back across the ocean in Toronto on July 2nd, it was the Rafael Devers show in a 10-6 Sox win. Devers went 4-for-5, slugging two homers, good for six RBIs. Two games later the Sox faced a 6-1 deficit and overcame it with a six-run sixth inning. Then after the Jays tied the game, Marco Hernandez once again hit a game winning homer in the ninth for a 7 to 6 victory.

In Detroit on July 6th, (.331 BA) Devers hit his fourth home run in as many games, leading the Sox to a 9 to 6 win. In the last nine games, he was 19-for-37 with 11 extra base hits and 13 RBIs. In the next game the Sox won 10-6, and it was Andrew Benintendi who went 4-for-6 with two runs scored, a tripe, a double and a stolen base. The Sox then defeated the Tigers, 6-3, to sweep the series.

RAFAEL DEVERS

So, going into the All Star Break, the Sox were nine games behind the Yankees in the AL East and in third place for the second wild card spot, two games behind the Indians.

With the season just past the halfway mark, the Red Sox (49-41) had performed well below expectations. Both Mookie Betts (.272 BA) and Andrew Benintendi (.274 BA) had under performed, while Rafael Devers (.324 BA, 16 HRs, 62 RBIs) had a breakout season, along with Christian Vazquez (.299 BA, 14HR, 41 RBIs). Xander Bogaerts (.294 BA, 17 HRs, 65 RBIs) had been the Sox top run producer. J.D. Martinez (.304 BA) and Brock Holt (.318 BA) were as consistent as always with Michael Chavis (.263 BA, 15 HRs, 48 RBIs) becoming an every day starter.

David Price (7-2, 3.24 ERA) had been a consistent starter while Chris Sale (3-8, 4.04 ERA) and Rick Porcello (6-7, 5.33 ERA) were up and down. Meanwhile, the bullpen had a league high of 16 blown saves, but Brandon Workman (8-1, 1.79 ERA) was a consistent good performer.

Along with Alex Cora, as the manager of the American League All Stars, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts were named to the squad, in the game played in Cleveland on July 9th.

The Sox started the second half in a World Series rematch with the Dodgers. On July 12th, Eduardo Rodriguez won his 10th game, striking out ten batters in seven innings, in an 8 to 1 win. However the Sox dropped the next two games. The bright spot was the hot bat of Xander Bogaerts, who homered in each game.

The Sox next faced the Blue Jays at Fenway and took 3-of-4. On July 15th, behind Michael Chavis' first career grandslam homer, to Sox won, 10-8. In the third game on July 17th, Rafael Devers' hot bat continued to sizzle. Devers had three run-scoring hits, including a home run, in a 5 to 4 Sox win. Then in the finale, with everything clicking, Chris Sale won his first game at Fenway Park in over a year, with a 5-0 shutout victory, striking out 12 over six scoreless innings. And it was Devers who again supplied a great part of the offense with a three-run homer.

The bad news was that the Sox could not gain ground on the Yankees, remaining 10 games behind. But in the wild card race, the Sox were 2 games behind the Rays and the A's for the for the second wild card seat.

In Baltimore on July 20th, Jackie Bradley Jr's two home runs led a Sox juggernaut that blasted the Orioles, 17-6. But the Sox lost 2-of-3 to the last place Orioles and moved on to Tampa for now a must-win series of games with the Rays and the Yankees.

The Sox easily beat the Rays in the first game of the series, on July 22nd, 9 to 4. J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi led the charge. Martinez belted a three-run homer as part of a seven run inning and two batters later, Benintendi slammed a solo shot. Meanwhile Eduardo Rodriguez limited the Rays to two hits over seven innings.

In the second game, Chris Sale was his vintage self, beating the Rays 5-4. Christian Vazquez's homer snapped a 2-2 tie, letting the Sox move into second place, for the first time since the second game of the season.

XANDER BOGAERTS

The Sox took 2-of-3 and came home to Fenway to face the Yankees for four games, 11 games behind them. In the first game of the series, on July 25th, the Sox beat-up Masahiro Tanaka, 19-3. The Sox scored seven runs  in the first and didn’t let up after that. Xander Bogaerts demolished a fastball over everything in left field for a 451-foot homer, and it gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead three batters into the bottom of the first. The Sox jumped out to a 7-0 lead, after just one inning.

The next night, July 26th, Mookie Betts looked like his MVP self again, hitting home runs in each of his three at bats and finishing with 14 total bases. It was the fifth time Mookie has had a three homer game. Amazingly, he is one three-homer game away from the all-time record. While Betts was certainly the headliner, Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez had monster games as well, while Andrew Cashner was very strong on the mound. The Sox beat up the Yankees again, 10-5.

The third game saw the Sox win once again, beating the Yankees, 9 to 5. J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi homered in the sixth straight game the Sox had scored eight or more runs against New York. Benintendi had three hits and scored three runs, along with three hits by Rafael Devers.

But the Sox lost the final game and ended the month by losing three straight to the Rays. They then went to the Bronx and lost four games to the Yankees. The champion Red Sox ended a week where they needed to win, in order to stay in the race, but ended up losing eight straight. The Sox starting pitchers had a 10.61 ERA over the period, giving up 44 run in 37 1/3 innings.

They left New York, tail between their legs, 14 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East, and 6 games behind Oakland for the second wild card slot.

Chris Sale chalked up his 7th consecutive 200 strikeout season by whipping the Los Angeles Angels, 5-0 on August 8th, becoming only the fifth player in baseball history to accomplish the feat.

On August 13th, in Cleveland, Rafael Devers made MLB history by going 6-for-6 including four doubles. Nomar Garciaparra, Jerry Remy, Pete Runnels and Jimmy Piersall were other Red Sox players to also get six hits in a game. Chris Sale also made history in the 7-6 Sox win, by reaching 2000 career strikeouts in the shortest time.

In September, Dave Dombrowski was fired, David Ortiz returned after being shot, to throw out a first pitch, and Carl Yastrzemski tossed out a first pitch to his grandson, Mike Yastrzemski, when his team, the San Francisco Giants came to play the Sox at Fenway. 

In a dramatic moment, in his first game ever played at Fenway, on September 17th, the younger Yaz seemed to turn back the clock, when he homered into the centerfield bleachers for the Giants, and got a standing ovation from the fans.

In the final game of the season on September 29th, Eduardo Rodriguez (19-6) left the game with the lead, on the way to his 20th win, but Matt Barnes couldn't hold the lead and he ended with a no-decision. The Sox finished the game and the season with a walk-off Rafael Devers single, to beat the Orioles, 5 to 4.