“The Hangover” – A Boston Red Sox preview

9:00 AM CDT on May 2, 2019

(Keith Allison / Flickr)

Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine.

It was the happy ending they had in mind when they dealt away a package of baseball's very best prospects for three bites at the apple with one of baseball's best pitchers, Chris Sale, in tow. The Boston Red Sox won a whopping 108 games last season, the most of any team in the last 17 years. They kept the hated rival New York Yankees at bay despite an impressive season from the Bronx Bombers, a situation that Boston has experienced in reverse all too many times. They put together a dominant postseason run, including a series win over said Yankees. Right fielder Mookie Betts slightly outplayed Mike Trout and won the AL MVP award. Finally, they closed out their World Series win with Sale on the mound, striking out the side in the ninth.

Baseball is a funny game in that sometimes a team's best-laid plans take it to the highest of heights, but like a card shark at the poker table, even the good decision-makers are always vulnerable to the unpredictable. Teams have to reckon with injury risk, a unforeseeable downturn from a star player, and even the randomness of the angle at which a ball traveling 90 mph bounces off of a bat. If said "misfortunes" continuously affect a team, you start to question who's making the decisions (::cough::). However, not even baseball's sharks are immune to an unlucky season.

The 2019 Red Sox have faced a multitude of unfortunate circumstances that have already rendered them significant underdogs to repeat as AL East champions. Sale has shown a frightening velocity loss early in the season, and while his changeup and slider are still usable as out pitches, the fastball has been getting obliterated. Rick Porcello has made a long career of limiting walks and home runs. Suddenly, home plate is jumping around on him, and he's become quite "wild in the strike zone". Hard-throwing free agent acquisition Nathan Eovaldi has already made good on both fears surrounding his profile, as he's been both erratic (11.8 percent walk rate) and unavailable (surgery to remove "loose bodies" from his elbow). Eduardo Rodriguez has posted a 6.16 ERA against a 3.81 FIP because innings have been snowballing on him; he's allowed a .673 OPS with the bases empty, a .965 OPS with men on base, and a Robertian 1.389 OPS (!!!) with runners in scoring position.

That only covers the problems with the rotation. Second base had been a cesspool of injuries and punchlessness before top prospect Michael Chavis came up and breathed some life into the position. He's hit the ground running the way we wish Eloy Jimenez would have. Jackie Bradley Jr.'s OPS begins with a '4', and Steve Pearce's begins with a '2'. First baseman Mitch Moreland hit .216/.298/.348 over the last 88 games of last season; he's doing about the same this year except with enough power to be an average MLB hitter, but not when taking into account his position.

Because the Red Sox are still extremely good, there's plenty of positives to point to amidst the dreck. Betts hasn't been repeating his torrid 2018, but he's still a slugging monster that posts roughly equal walk and strikeout rates. Many thought that J.D. Martinez would wind up as a cautionary tale in free agent investment, but the 2018 MLB RBI champion just continues to mash and post batting averages north of .300. Xander Bogaerts is right on track to repeat his 5-WAR campaign from 2018 with his combination of on-base skills, power, and good defense at short. Lefty David Price has been the lone bright spot in the starting rotation, as he's throwing the ball better than he ever has in a Red Sox uniform. The 33-year-old still doesn't utilize a traditional breaking pitch all that often, but his sinker and cutter have been on point this year.

The remaining three guys in Boston's regular lineup haven't stood out all that much thus far. Andrew Benintendi has seen a modest uptick in whiffs this season and his numbers are still recovering from a nightmarish first seven games. The guy we saw last season was a legitimate 20/20 threat with on-base skills, so better times are likely ahead. Rafael Devers has made great strides this season toward improving his strikeout-to-walk ratio, resulting in an OBP above .380. That sounds great, but the changed approach may have cost him some power, as he's yet to hit a homer after belting 21 last season. Christian Vazquez is a prototypical defense-first backstop who hits just enough to justify regular playing time. If you start with the White Sox' version of Tyler Flowers and trade some power for contact ability, you've got Vazquez.

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It's hard for any team, even one as great as the Red Sox, to erase a six-game lead, particularly when the team being chased is very well put-together. The Yankees stand as another obstacle, as they sit just two games behind Tampa Bay and are likely the better team. If the fabled World Series hangover is a real thing, the rest of the AL East doesn't seem intent on being forgiving about it.

Boston may be on its way to righting the ship, as a three-game sweep of the A's helped them to pick up 1.5 games in the division. They'd like to build that success into a hot streak that rectifies their early stumbles. Naturally, the White Sox have been assigned the tall task of cooling them down.

Probable Starting Pitchers