Power outage hits Boston
Minus Ortiz, Red Sox last in AL in home runs
An incredulous Xander Bogaerts repeated the word, trying to grasp a concept that seemed incomprehensible.
The Boston Red Sox sit at the bottom of the American League in homers this season.
“Is it true? Last? Last? Damn,” the All-Star shortstop said as the thought sank in.
The Red Sox led the majors with an average of 5.42 runs per game in 2016 and naturally expected some drop-off with David Ortiz taking his 541 home runs into retirement.
They were not figuring the output would decline by nearly a full run to their current 4.56 going into Tuesday.
The inability to make up for diminished production with superior pitching, as was the plan, has kept the Red Sox from gaining any traction this season. By beating the Oakland Athletics 12-3 on Sunday they avoided a four-game sweep and falling below .500 for the first time, but they have won more than two in a row once (four games, April 15-18).
At 22-21, good for third place in the AL East, the Red Sox are the picture of mediocrity, a far cry from the powerhouse generally expected to rule the division and make a run at their fourth World Series championship in 14 years.
The trio of brilliant starting pitchers who were supposed to guide Boston into the post- Ortiz era — Cy Young Award winners David Price and Rick Porcello along with offseason pickup Chris Sale — have been more like 11⁄ 2. Price has been out all season (elbow strain) — he might start his first game next week — and Porcello (2-5) has returned to his career norm, his 4.23 ERA nearly mirroring a lifetime 4.20 mark.
Only Sale (2.19 ERA, majors-leading 95 strikeouts) has lived up to his billing, though
third-year left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez also has pitched well.
“Each team’s going to deal with their own injuries — their own revolving door, so to speak — with the roster,” manager John Farrell said. “We’ve had that. We’ve had our share of inconsistent performances. So, yeah, our record states where we are.”
Much of the blame lies with an offense that ranked ninth in the league in runs before Sunday’s eruption. Most noticeable has been the lack of home runs, especially for a club that plays half of its games at cozy Fenway Park, where the Red Sox open a sixgame homestand Tuesday against the Texas Rangers.
Mookie Betts, last year’s runner-up in the AL MVP race, leads the club with seven, followed by Hanley Ramirez with six. Nobody else has more than five. Bogaerts, who hit 21 last season, has zero. Jackie Bradley Jr. hit 26 homers in 2016 and has four this year, to go with a .208 batting average.
Boston had seven hitters reach the 15-homer mark as it went deep 208 times last season. The club is on pace for 143 this year.
The power outage is particularly puzzling because, aside from Mitch Moreland essentially replacing Ortiz, it’s much the same lineup that haunted foes in 2016. Without Ortiz, though, there isn’t one big bopper to command opposing pitchers’ attention.
Third base has been a particularly troublesome spot, producing a league-low .571 on-base plus slugging percentage. Starter Pablo Sandoval, out since April 24 with a sprained knee, is expected back this month, though he was batting .213 before getting hurt.
“It’s about time we get going,” said Bogaerts, who points to a thumb injury he suffered in midApril as a reason for his diminished power. “Obviously, you can’t replace a hitter like (Ortiz), but we have the talent here and should be doing better.”
Lefty-swinging outfielder Andrew Benintendi, who is batting .280 with five homers and 24 RBI, has been batting cleanup for most of May, in large part to break up the lineup’s right-handed hitters. He’s a terrific prospect with pop, but by this time in 2016, Ortiz had 10 homers as the cleanup hit-- ter. At 22, Benintendi will have ups and downs — evidenced by his 3-for-37 (.081) stretch over his last 10 games.
“We’ve had our moments, but we haven’t clicked on all cylinders yet,” Moreland said. “I feel like we’re very capable of making one of those runs.”
Perhaps they’ll get started by forcing the action on the basepaths instead of at the plate.
The Red Sox have been caught stealing 10 times in 34 attempts, and Farrell sounds a bit wary of killing scoring chances by run- ning into outs, but Betts’ derringdo on the bases sparked them Sunday before a five-run ninth inning broke the game open.
In the first inning, Betts scored from second on right fielder Mark Canha’s errant throw after Dustin Pedroia’s bloop single. Four innings later, Betts left mouths agape when he easily scored from first on a hit-and-run single to shallow center, not even drawing a throw to the plate.
His feats of the feet served as a reminder the Red Sox have the capability of creating some offense even when their drives are not clearing the fences.
Something has to click; the Red Sox rank eighth in the AL in runs and slugging percentage. Just once in the last decade — in 2014 — has the club not finished in the top five in AL runs.
“The game’s not won and lost by home runs; it’s total runs,” Moreland said. “We’re just trying to score more than the other team, whether it’s home runs or some other way to get runs.”
“Obviously, you can’t replace a hitter like (Ortiz), but we have the talent here and should be doing better.” Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts