Maybe so. But the theme in the clubhouse after an 8-1 win Sunday was, finally, one of relaxation. Several players could feel it for the first time since 2011 began.
“I think we’re starting to relax a little bit,” first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said.
That can happen when you experience back-to-back wins for the first time all year. It also helps when you score plenty early on, giving starter Jon Lester margin for error, and you tack on plenty late to give the final few innings an easier feel.
The seven-run margin of victory was the largest of the team’s four victories this season.
Lester admittedly did not have his best stuff. He walked three and had some heavy pitch counts in a few innings. But he never felt any real sense of danger, in part because of the four-spot that his team put up in the second inning.
Three straight singles got one run in, and Jacoby Ellsbury provided the decisive blow with a three-run homer that had its sights set on the right-field roof deck before settling deep into the grandstands.
“The home run that Jacoby hit kind of made everybody relax,” Lester said, echoing the day’s theme.
The other big blow was Jarrod Saltalamacchia‘s two-run single in the sixth, which made it 6-1. That hit, along with a better day behind the plate, could help the young catcher to, you guessed it, relax. At least that’s the hope.
“The more anybody relaxes, the better they’ll be,” manager Terry Francona said of Saltalamacchia. “The game sometimes can look a little bit quick.”
Lester, who struck out five in his first win of the season, said that Boston can be a difficult place to play, unless you prepare yourself for it. He added that if you do in fact struggle, and let your struggles get to your head, “it’s not fun.”
In what has been a rarity early on, the Red Sox had some fun Sunday. They were also able to relax.
