Boston Red Sox's 2015 season to date is worse than the 2012 Bobby V debacle; has the team hit rock bottom?
Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez steps off the field after pitching against the Toronto Blue Jays in the third inning Sunday.
BOSTON -- Bobby Valentine famously uttered "I think we've hit bottom" on April 21, 2012 when the Red Sox blew a 9-0 lead to the Yankees and lost 15-9.
The Sox's record dropped to 4-10 after that 3 hour, 52 minute game, but the team didn't play too poorly the next 54 days.
Three years ago today, June 14, 2012, the Boston Red Sox were just one game under .500 with a 31-32 record and still had plenty of playoff hope in them.
If that was rock bottom back then what on Earth was this weekend at Fenway Park?
Your 2015 Boston Red Sox sit at 27-37 here on June 14 -- nine games worse than the Bobby V year -- after getting rocked 13-5 by the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park on Sunday.
"Today we got beat up," Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
Have the Red Sox hit rock bottom 10 games below .500? They are 10-21 against AL East opponents.
The Bobby V 2012 Red Sox actually were over .500 on Aug. 1 (53-52 record) and didn't fall to as many as 10 games below .500 until Sept. 1 (62-72).
At least the '12 team still was in contention at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.
This year's team already feels finished. How many of you out there have thrown in the towel already?
Last year's 71-91 last-place Red Sox team was 31-37 on June 14.
But wait. Who is sick and tired of comparing last-place seasons? Raise your hand.
Red Sox fans should be conversing over which potential July 31 trades could put their team over the top -- and not talking about a possible third last-place finish in four years.
"When you monitor the preparation, when you monitor the at-bats inside of a given game, I don't see at-bats being given away, I don't see us dogging it in any way," Farrell said. "Things aren't going our way. I know that."
Friday, the Sox blew a seven-run lead to lose 13-10 to the Jays after being swept by the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore Tuesday through Thursday. That Friday game sounds a lot like that rock bottom game from April 2012.
Then came Saturday when Boston fought back down 4-0 to tie it 4-4. But the Sox couldn't win the close one, falling 5-4 in 11 innings to the Jays.
Now here's Sunday's sad story: The Red Sox sent their 22-year-old phenom Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound to try to stop the bleeding. Rodriguez -- with three stellar major league starts entering Sunday -- has been viewed by some as the potential ace this team needs to turn the season in the right direction.
But the Red Sox failed to replace ace Jon Lester in the offseason. And a 22-year-old making his fourth ever major league start shouldn't be counted on to be a stopper or to put a team on his shoulders.
This is why the Red Sox needed to replace Lester.
It has been a week since the Red Sox last won a game. Meanwhile, Farrell's old Toronto club has won 11 straight.
The first-place Yankees have won eight of their past 11 games.
The Orioles -- who just saw their six-game winning streak end Sunday -- have won eight of their past 10.
Tampa Bay has won 11 of its past 15.
"It's definitely not fun," Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. "Nobody wants to be losing and losing on a daily basis like this is no fun for sure."
Bogaerts said he doesn't think the players are angry, but he described the clubhouse as, "Frustrated. Disappointed. Not happy. As I said yesterday, nobody expected us to be in this situation but that's the reality right now."
It's a sad reality for those fans who have spent money on ticket for upcoming games.
"Looking back at the energy inside the game (Sunday), the energy is there," Farrell said. "We didn't handle every ball cleanly. That goes without saying. We get a ball in the following inning after the six run (inning) that's an aggressive call-off by (right fielder Alejandro) De Aza. Xander is camped under it. It opens up the door for a couple more consecutive hits and it's a four-run inning. So it's a 10-run hole we're in."
That miss play allowed Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion, who had walked with two outs, to score all the way from first base to make it 7-0 Blue Jays.
Toronto ended up scoring three more times in the fifth to increase its lead to 10-0.
All this came after two quick groundball outs.
That got the restless crowd booing. The Fenway Faithful booed several times here Sunday and deservedly so. Maybe the loudest they cheered was when two immature males ran out onto the field. Both got rather loud ovations as security guards escorted them off the field and up the stands.
"We're not in a good place right now as a team but it's not because we're not giving effort," Farrell said. "We're not executing completely."
Farrell actually called out Hanley Ramirez's poor base running in the first inning. Read about that by clicking here.
"There's an upset clubhouse," Farrell said. "There's a group of guys that are coming in every day with a thought that we've got a chance to get on a little bit of a run, a little bit of a winning streak and yet it's not taken place.
"There's not guys coming in hanging their heads before the day starts," Farrell added. "Now there's frustration when it doesn't play out for one reason or another during a given game but this is a group that is -- like I've said -- has had success. And yet we're not experiencing it right now."
Farrell has done a lot of things to spark the Red Sox, including giving consecutive days off to David Ortiz, Mike Napoli and Pablo Sandoval and rearranging the lineup multiple times.
"You're always looking to put guys in a position of success based on what you know of them, what they've been familiar at, what they've done well at in the past," Farrell said. "This isn't a change in the lineup. This is about going out and executing."