Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Forty-Percent Solution: Red Sox In Control

As of this morning, exactly 40% of the 2013 season is in the books for your Carmine Hose. They have won 40 of their first 65 games—a pace that would net them 100 wins (actually 99.63, but we're rounding up). The last time they hit the century mark was sixty-seven years ago in 1946—the year they lost the World Series to the Cardinals on the Enos Slaughter scamper to home.  And yet, this ragtag bunch of Idiots II have the second-best record in all of baseball (one win behind this year's Cardinal juggernaut). It needs to be said right now that we at FenwayNation were dead wrong about the fortunes of this club—at least so far. We had them ticketed for—at best—a fourth place finish. Of course, that still might come to pass, but it looks more like Ben Cherington's controversial off-season moves have been—on the whole—hugely successful. Barring a 2011-type collapse, this edition of the Red Sox should contend for a playoff spot of some sort right to the end. Cherington deserves a lot of credit.