It's been an ugly start to the 2022 Major League Baseball season for the Boston Red Sox, to say the very least.
The offense can't seem to get anything going outside of Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez, and there's no one the Red Sox can trust to close out the ninth inning, as fans have seen nine blown saves already.
Boston has lost its last five games heading into a three-game road series against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, and are 2-8 in its last 10.
Given the state of where the Red Sox stand heading into their series against the Atlanta Braves, it's not a shock what MLB.com's Ian Browne had for Boston's "most surprising development."
Coming into the season, it was clear the Red Sox would have their work cut out for them competing against stacked New York, Tampa Bay and Toronto teams. It didn't, however, seem they would have this much trouble. One week into May, the Red Sox are sitting 10 games back of the Yankees at 10-19. The heart of Boston's order (Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez) has carried the offense, batting .309 with an .833 OPS. The rest of the lineup is hitting just .188 with a .523 OPS. The bats figure to heat up at some point, but suffice it to say this is not where the Red Sox expected to be at this point of the season.
The American League East always is one of MLB's toughest divisions, and the Red Sox have a big hole to crawl out of already.
Still, there's plenty of baseball left to be played, but there are some glaring issues that need to be addressed if the Red Sox even want to think about postseason baseball.
First pitch for Red Sox-Braves on Tuesday is set for 7:20 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action beginning at 6 p.m. on NESN+.
