For the Red Sox, it could be any number of things. The team's varied health has been one cause, but it cannot be everything.
However, if there is anything tangible, anything that seems to be the primary cause for an up-and-down campaign, it would do the organization some good to get to the bottom of it, for Boston has been about as erratic as any team in recent memory.
To think the Red Sox were labeled the biggest busts in baseball after two weeks, only to assume the title of a can't-miss club by the end of July and to follow that up with a can-miss September and you have a team lacking identity, at least when it comes to wins and losses.
A line graph of Boston's season would read like a ride through the Rockies. And right now they're screaming downhill with no brakes.
The most shocking aspect of this wild ride lies in the fact that the second half of the season (or thereabouts) contains the best July in franchise history and now a September that may go down as the second worst behind only the 1926 edition, which was 4-18 in the last month en route to a 46-107 season.
For effect, let's repeat that. The Sox' 20-6 record in July was the very best in terms of winning percentage for that month in the 111-year history of the franchise. Their 5-17 record in September, just two months later (for those of you without the months of the year memorized), is surpassed in terms of its wretchedness by just one other team, and that team was the second-worst in franchise history.
It was a team-wide surge in July. It's been a team-wide fall in September, as illustrated in these numbers:
July team batting average: .298
September: .279
July team OPS: .874
September: .796
July stolen bases: 21-for-27 (77.8 percent)
September: 8-for-13 (61.5 percent)
July K/BB rate for hitters: 1.72
September: 2.22
July ERA for starters: 4.54
September: 7.34
July WHIP for starters: 1.453
September: 1.748
July K/BB rate for starters: 2.61
September: 1.82
July ERA for relievers: 2.39
September: 4.84
July WHIP for relievers: 0.986
September: 1.344
July K/BB rate for relievers: 3.11
September: 2.16
July errors: eight in 26 games
September: 23 in 22 games
And, again, the win-loss records:
July: 20-6
September: 5-17
Talk about inconsistency.
