Red Sox Can’t Afford Another Rocky Start to Season, But Loaded April Slate Will Provide Challenge

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Apr 4, 2012

Red Sox Can't Afford Another Rocky Start to Season, But Loaded April Slate Will Provide ChallengeThe Red Sox will get their first real chance to put the horror show that was 2011 behind them on Thursday afternoon in the Motor City.

The 2012 season will open with the tall task of facing the reigning Cy Young and MVP winner Justin Verlander in Detroit, a game that will open a crucial stretch of baseball for the Red Sox.

Veteran teams will often talk about how, while every game matters in a 162-game season, you have time to rebound from a slow start. One of the many lessons learned in 2011, however, is that it’s not always as easy as you like to think it is to overcome a slow start.

The Sox struggled mightily to begin the season, a fact that was obviously overshadowed by the 7-20 finish. But Boston limped out of the gate, losing its first six on the way to a 2-10 start. If the team had just won two of those games, a 7-20 September is just a crummy way to end the season rather than one of the most historic collapses in the history of the game.

If you’re a Red Sox fan, you have to hope that the club learned from that. It’s safe to assume a quick start is something Bobby Valentine has in mind as he brings his team to Detroit to open the season. You also have to assume that the players still on the roster from last year remember that stinging feeling.

There’s no reason to think that the Red Sox won’t put a greater emphasis on the beginning of the season this year. They have no choice. Here’s the thing, though. It’s not going to be easy to put up a string of wins in the early going.

Unfortunately for Boston, injuries have hit them to begin the year. Carl Crawford isn’t likely to be back for another month, something that may force Valentine to give more at-bats than he might want to players like Ryan Sweeney and Cody Ross.

There’s also the injury to Andrew Bailey. The presumed closer’s thumb injury is something that is going to take much longer than just the month of April to heal, which is a concern for the short and long term. It sounds like Josh Beckett will be fine — even with a thumb issue of his own — but if that flares up, it will make things real dicey. The pitching staff is already being shuffled with Daniel Bard in the rotation and the Bailey injury leaving Valentine to do some early juggling.

Injuries aren’t the only thing that Boston will have to overcome. Just as importantly, the Sox’ schedule is brutal for the first few weeks of the season. They’ll open up in Detroit against Justin Verlander and the Tigers, who are fresh off a trip to the ALCS last year. If you’re looking for a silver lining there, take solace in the recent past. The Sox are 14-5 against Jim Leyland‘s bunch since 2009.

However, the schedule actually gets more difficult once the Sox leave Motown. From there, they’ll head north of the border to Toronto. That opens a 12-game stretch that looks like this:

April 9-11 at Toronto
April 13-16 versus Tampa Bay
April 17-18 versus Texas
April 20-22 versus New York 

The good news is that there’s a nine-game homestand in there to kick off Fenway Park’s 100th birthday bash. The bad news is that those nine games come against some of the American League’s toughest teams. 

The AL East is loaded, with Toronto a sexy pick to finally break out this year. That three-game series at Rogers Centre will be the Jays’ home opener, and you know they’ll be looking to make a statement. Tampa Bay has arguably the best rotation in the baseball, the Rangers are the defending AL champs and the Yankees are, well, the Yankees.

If your glass is half full, though, you’ll see this as opportunity for the Sox. We’ll learn a lot about this team early on, and if they have any sort of competitive fire they’ll come out guns blazing looking ,to atone early and often for the way last season went.

If they’re successful in doing so, they may be able to use the first month of the season as a springboard, and as soon as they see the Yankees out of town on the 22nd, Boston will open a stretch of games with the AL’s also-rans.

They’ll then get a 22-game stretch against the likes of Minnesota, Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland and Seattle. To put that in perspective, Boston will play roughly a month’s worth of games against teams that finished an average of 19.7 games out of first place in their respective divisions last season. They just need to weather the storm to get to that stretch.

The Red Sox don’t necessarily need a fast start to the 2012 season. They just can’t afford to begin the way they did last year. 

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