April was a rough month for the Red Sox in the batter’s box, to say the least.
Boston’s offense undoubtedly was the club’s most glaring issue over the first few weeks of the season, and it’s a major reason why the Red Sox currently own a 9-13 record. The Sox enter Sunday’s slate of games ranked 21st in Major League Baseball in team batting average (.225) and they’ve only hit 14 home runs. Only five teams have hit fewer round-trippers than Alex Cora’s bunch.
So, what gives? Boston was a pretty strong offensive team last season and that was expected to be the case again in 2022 with Trevor Story now in the mix. After Saturday night’s loss to the Orioles in Baltimore, J.D. Martinez suggested a possible reason for the Red Sox’s offensive shortcomings.
“I think the shortened spring has something to do with it,” Martinez told reporters, per MLB.com. “I don’t think a lot of guys got to tweak (their swings). During Spring Training, you always see guys tweaking. I feel like you want to struggle in spring because that’s when you get to try out everything and kind of see if it works. If … (you) kind of rush through it, come season, pressure’s on and now it’s game time and it’s time to go. Guys are trying to see what’s going to work now, and it’s tough.”
Indeed, valuable tune-up time was wiped away due to the MLB lockout. But the fact of the matter is, every team in the big leagues was forced to deal with the abbreviated spring training. It can’t be used as a legitimate excuse for the Red Sox scoring two runs or less in eight of their last 12 games.
Boston’s bats will try to turn the tides Sunday afternoon when it wraps up its three-game series with the O’s.
