The Red Sox have twenty games left to play in the month of May.
Exactly three of those twenty come against AL East rivals (Tampa). So, it may be tough for Boston to erase their current five game deficit in the division. We have to start facing reality, Sox fans, this just might be a .500 ballclub. They're just
two games over right now (17-15), and it doesn't appear likely that they'll get a
lot better by the Memorial Day evaluation point. There are problems all over the place with this team: injuries to key pitchers in the rotation and bullpen, no depth on the bench, crappy defense, sporadic offense—and honestly,
no leadership. There's a lot of talk about the implications of a Papa-Free
lineup—but the lack of Papi's influence in the
clubhouse might be just as damaging. The
Dustin Pedroia-
Manny Machado fiasco didn't help the leadership quotient, either. This could be an extremely
long Summer.
