Red Sox’ Season Now Survival of the Fittest as Youngsters and Prospects Experience Growing Pains

Editor's note: NESN.com is going to tell the story of the 2012 Red Sox in Bobby Valentine's words. Each game day, we will select the best Valentine quote that sums up the day for the Red Sox.

Wednesday night's loss was the kind of which there may be a few more of between now and the end of the season. That's the kind of inconsistency you can expect when playing the rookies and youngsters in the question for the evaluation of players.

With now over 100 innings pitches in the big leagues, it's probably no longer accurate to call pitcher Zach Stewart — acquired in the Kevin Youkilis trade — a prospect anymore. However the 25-year-old has yet to establish himself at the major league level, and thus he is one of the youngsters on the Red Sox right now.

However, yielding nine runs in three innings of work was likely not the way that youngster wanted to make an impression on the new club he's trying to stick with. Nonetheless, enduring such nights is the kind of necessary evil that Boston will need to occasionally experience as the club lets its less-experienced players out onto the diamond, leaving those water wings behind to jump into the deep end of the pool.

"It's what everyone does when they get to the big leagues," said Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine after Boston's 10-3 loss to the Angels, its fifth consecutive defeat at the hands of the Halos. "They're young at one time, and then the strong survive."

And that's exactly what this Red Sox season has morphed into at this point — a Darwinian survival of the fittest in which only the best live to earn a roster spot in 2013.

Now, after one start no one should declare that Zach Stewart has been naturally selected out of the Red Sox talent pool. His rough night is representative of the kind of difficulties the club is going to have to let its youngsters experience. The club must then gauge where they're at — how their mental fortitude is, and how they're able to make the necessary day-to-day adjustments against major league opponents.

So whether it be Jose Iglesias' bat, Ryan Lavarnway's defense behind the plate or Mauro Gomez's ability to prove his breakout season hasn't been a fluke, the Red Sox are going to have to figure out which players can rise to the occasion, and which just aren't cut out for regular big league duty.

So who will survive? Which players will prove their worth to the big club and which will left on the outside looking in as Spring Training rolls around next March? Think of it like a reality show, where the winners get to live the dream of playing Major League Baseball.

That is why Red Sox baseball is still compelling for the next four and a half weeks.