About as Expected

So, here the Sox sit, having completed nine games. Three series. Oh, and they won them all.

Pretty much everything you assumed would happen, right? Things seem to be on the right track as we head into the second weekend of the season.

Did everything go perfectly? Of course not. But, things aren’t going to go perfectly every single time. The goal is to allow the things your perfect at to outshine your imperfections.

Going into the season, there were a couple knowns. The offense would be good. Really good. It would have to make up for a pitching staff that was inconsistent at best, shaky at worst.

Yup. That’s exactly what has happened.

Without actually looking at the numbers, of the nine games I seem to remember, generally, three great start by the starter, three “eh” starts, and three starts that you had to turn away from. But, the Red Sox find themselves at 6-3 because even an offense missing Papi and Panda could score runs against Gio Gonzalez.

And that what the season is going to be for the next 153 games too. Sometimes you won’t need the offense, sometimes you will. Sometimes it will be absolutely crucial. It’s all going to depend on how the numbers fall, and you just hope that they fall the Sox way more often than not.

Like they have so far.

It’s interesting that those three series have also represented a range of competition. Aces, and losers. A presumed basement dwell, and a presumed division champ. And something else in-between. Against the three of them, the Sox have stayed steady.

Which is why they’re on pace for 108 wins.

I know. I just threw that one in there. But, really, as small sample sizes go, these nine games have been a good one. You can’t say “They haven’t faced anybody” because they have. You can’t say, “What happens when they face injuries?” because they’ve faced them. They’ve had key players out of the line-up quite a bit. The rest of the team just keeps plugging along.

So, just like Opening Day, you don’t want to extrapolate out for the whole season. But, just like Opening Day, when the small sample size matched s up with what you expected, you can start to get a level of comfort. Three series have gone pretty much according to plan. Let’s see how the next three go.

The Magic Number is 153