Sweep in the Heart of Texas

Whenever a team has a weekend like the Sox had, everyone starts looking for answers to questions that otherwise wouldn’t exist. What does this mean? How does this define the team?

Was April a fluke? Did the lack of quality opponents make the Sox look better than they really were? Was this weekend a fluke? Are weaknesses suddenly exposed? Or, is this just the sort of thing that happens as a season goes along?

Naturally, I fall into line with the latter. I posted before that I didn’t buy into the “haven’t beaten a good team” line, since the Sox had faced everyone that matters. They’ve faced everyone in the division, and some decent teams elsewhere. Are we saying, then, that Texas is the only good team out there? If so, I’m ok with that. After all, the Sox only have three more games against them. I’m not going to hold this one series up as an example of the Sox feasting on weak teams.

Did it expose a weakness? Well, I guess it showed that the Sox’s number four starter can’t beat one of the top teams on the road. Not sure that qualifies as a weakness, though. Lackey pitched pretty well, and Lester threw a quality start up against Darvish. Hard to get too worked up about that. The Sox had trouble scoring runs. But, that’s nothing new. We all knew when the roster was put together that they’d have trouble doing that. When you plan on winning lots of 4-3 games, you have to plan on losing lots of those too.

At the end of it, the Sox still have the best record in baseball. They have that despite David Ortiz missing a lot of time, and each of their closers spending some time down with injuries. Of course the Sox will drop off a bit. They won’t win 105 games this year. But, I’d rather be on pace for 105 wins than 105 losses. Look at the rest of May. What do you see on the schedule that scares you? Do you see a lot more of those “good” teams that people are so concerned about the Sox beating? Neither do I.

So, let’s be disappointed that the Sox couldn’t grab at least one of those games. But, let’s not doom them for it either. Sometime you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you sweep, sometimes you get swept.

You just have to hope to do more of the sweeping.