The Red Sox are on a roll. Their sweep of Baltimore this weekend extended their winning streak to five games. It feels different already. You expected them to come back yesterday, and didn't expect them to blow it.
Christian Vazquez even commented to reporters, “We're back,”
How great is that to hear? A big part of winning is believing you can win. Not always looking over your shoulder for the loss that's “sure” to come. Play loose. Play fun. Play well. It was great to hear. The Red Sox had their swagger back, and were ready to start acting like champions.
Of course, that’s not good enough for some people. A majority of the replies to the tweet reporting the Vazquez sentiment went something like, “sure, against Baltimore. Let's see how you do against Minnesota!”
Seriously? We're doing this again?
We're still doing this?
Because we had to spend all last season hearing people discount every win, saying they couldn't beat real teams, certainly not in the playoffs. Pretty much right up until they hoisted the trophy, people were convinced they couldn't win. Same thing with the Patriots. Sure they were winning games. But they’d be in trouble when they face a supposed “good” team. I saw a comment that only in Boston could beating the Chiefs not be evidence that you can beat the Chiefs. Again, right up until they held the Lombardi people were saying they couldn't do it.
I don't know why people haven't learned yet.
Because you know what good teams do? They beat bad teams. That's how it works. The 100 win teams don't win 100 games by sweeping all the other playoff teams. No, they do it by beating the bad teams. A lot. Sweeping the Orioles isn't some sign that they can only beat bad teams. It's a sign that they're doing what they need to do. Do people think the Yankees haven't been beating the Orioles? Sure they have. Lots. Do people think the Yankees have been sweeping the Red Sox? I hope not. We know they haven't. So, why this insistence that the Sox have to beat every team every time every place?
Why do the Sox have to sweep Minnesoto in order for you to believe they can win? Because, I have news for you. They probably won't. My guess would be they lose tonight. They went extra innings in their third road game, then traveled to Minnesota to play a game today against a first place team. That doesn't scream “easy victory” to me.
Of course, they could win. If “they're back” they could just keep on rolling. But, if they don't, it doesn't define the team and more than it defined the Yankees when they lost to Baltimore.
Right now, the Red Sox are rolling, and sit just 5.5 games back in the division. Their magic number to clinch the division has fallen to 97. Things are looking up.
It's good to have them back.
No comments:
Post a Comment