Still Fighting

As you might have noticed, the Red Sox season hasn't quite started off as well as it might have. While some people are jumping right

off the cliff and claiming the pitching will never let the Sox have a good season, others are taking a more reasonable approach. One theory that has been floated quite objectively is the idea of starting the season on a West Coast swing. There's a lot of truth to that.

Sports teams play worse on the road than at home. All sports. Sometimes those reasons are more obvious...a football stadium that is so loud that you can't hear your plays being called. Sometimes it's more subtle, like a baseball stadium with unfamiliar angles, or a basketball court with different backgrounds behind tryout shot. And some of it is really hidden, like just the stresses of traveling.

Now, I know the Red Sox have a much easier time traveling that I would. They're not flying coach. They don't have to arrange their own hotel rooms. But, they're still not home in their own living rooms sleeping in their own beds. They have to be on a plane, and a bus, and sleep in a hotel room. It's just annoying.

So the idea of an eleven game road trip at any point in the season is a little frustrating. Having one to start the season is even more frustrating. Because, you're not even in a groove yet. So not only are you trying to remember how to swing a bat, but you're doing it with all the other distractions.

Not to mention the fact that Spring Training is basically a long road trip. Sure, some guys probably have pretty nice setups in Florida. But I bet some are in some annoying places. Then the Sox finished the Spring in Arizona...so a road trip in spring training. So the Sox really started the season coming off the road trip.

Bleh.

Which is why it's nice to see that the Sox apparently still have fight in them. It would be easy to just mentally check out and call it a series. Wait until the Fenway opener to really start your season. But they didn't.

Both their wins have been thanks to late inning scoring. Xander may have been thrown out taking an extra base the other day, but at least he was trying. They haven't packed it in. They're not giving up. They're still fighting.

Which is a really good sign for the rest of the season.