Everybody is high on the Red Sox right now—
and deservedly so. The team has fought back from three miserable months to be competitive again in the weird AL East. However, let's not start reserving space for another
World Championship banner under the press box quite yet. We all know about the dismal state of Red Sox pitching this year—
dead last in the American League with a 4.46 team ERA. But being on pace for just 76 wins is
also the result of a feeble offense. While the 2015 Red Sox are 5th in the AL in batting average (.257) and 3rd in OBP (.323), they are only 7th in runs scored—kind of a key metric in winning ballgames. In fact, they've scored 358 runs so far this this year—putting them on pace to score 610 runs on the season.
Care to guess how many runs the last place 2014 Red Sox scored? How about 634? That's
24 more runs than they'll likely score this year! And that 2014 team won only
71 games. So, while everyone is clamoring for adding "arms" at the trading deadline, we might think about adding some "lumber" as well.
