If you've followed the Red Sox for any portion of the 2011 season, then you must be scratching your head from time to time. This is not an easy team to figure out.
Take the recently completed six-game homestand. Three ugly losses to the Chicago White Sox, followed by three somewhat wacky wins over the Oakland Athletics. Was it a good stretch? A bad one? Something in between?
More accurately, it was further proof that this current edition, while solid, is a work in progress, and an incredibly inconsistent one at that. There was the 0-6 start, which became a 2-10 disaster, followed by eight wins in nine games. Since then, there have been five losing streaks, five winning streaks, some success on the road, some failure at home, and vice versa.
Through it all, the offense has had some incredible moments, but still sees a handful of players with numbers not on par with career norms. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew come to mind. The pitching staff has had historic runs of success to go along with multiple season-ending injuries, current concerns over the struggling Jon Lester and the banged-up Clay Buchholz, and a constant roster shuffle that has caused 20 different pitchers to make an appearance already.
For comparison's sake, the injury-riddled 2010 unit had 25 players throw a pitch, and two of them were position players making appearances in blowouts.
There is, however, one certainty. This schizophrenic club is about to embark on one of the more important road trips of the season. Finding an identity on this excursion, one that lasts beyond three or four games, could go a long way toward determining what sort of club we have on our hands going forward.
Yes, there are still more than 100 games remaining on the schedule. An All-Star break, a trade deadline and multiple dog days of summer are still to come. Placing so much emphasis on nine games in early June might seem a bit overzealous. But consider not only this quest for long-term consistency, but also the opponents on the upcoming slate.
Beginning Tuesday, the Red Sox will play nine road games in 10 days against their chief rivals in the American League East, each of whom have winning records. It matches the longest road trip of the year, and the only nine-game stretch away from home that includes nothing by division opponents.
It's a good time to find that identity, or, at the very least, win a bunch of games, no matter how they come. Either way, it's as critical a portion of the schedule as one can find going forward.
There's a visit to Toronto, where Boston dropped both ends of a two-game series last month. There is a trip to Tampa Bay, where the Rays will look to duplicate their two-game sweep in Fenway Park in April. And it all starts with a visit to The Bronx, home to a team that has gone 13-6 since the Red Sox last came to town.
It is in this first series against the Yankees where Boston will be tested most, and not only because of the first-place status and recent surge of the archrivals. Lester will be going in the opener, looking to turn around a recent five-start stretch in which his ERA is 6.52. Tim Wakefield will have to go in the second game in place of Buchholz, who was bumped to Friday's opener in Toronto with a bad back. And Josh Beckett, who has had two straight mediocre starts by his 2011 standards, will try to rediscover his recent dominance against a team that has knocked him around a bit in the past, his start in Yankee Stadium last month notwithstanding.
Based on those scenarios, it's possible to imagine myriad outcomes, much like the Red Sox' season so far. If they are positive, the club will be in great shape in 10 days. It also might find its identity.
How important to the Red Sox is this nine-game road trip? Leave your comments below.
