The Rays and Marlins will spend the season scurrying around the ocean floor in search of algae and the stray Cheeto. Beating those bottom dwellers simply checked the box marked, "Meh."
Yay, Red Sox for taking care of business. Break out the Monty Python pennants, for there was much rejoicing. But true validation required a statement against better competition. Enter the Yankees.
Everyone's consensus pick to win the AL East had stumbled out of the gate, which made the three-game series that kicked off at Fenway Park on Tuesday all the more compelling. Would the 8-1 Red Sox continue their early dominance, or would the 5-5 Yankees train their howitzers on the Mass. Pike and show the upstart hosts who's really boss?
Final score: Red Sox 14, Yankees 1.
Next question.
There are statement wins and then there's what the Red Sox did in the freezing cold on Tuesday night. They didn't just beat the visitors. They pulverized them. They didn't just take Game 1 of 19. They sent a message: We're the two-time defending AL East champs, and we're better than either of those teams. The road to the postseason still goes through us.
"You can go through all the cliches, it's a long season, we've got a lot of games left blah blah blah blah blah, but you see the morale in here," said ace Chris Sale. "You see the energy, the confidence, kind of the easiness, it allows you to go out there and just play. There's no pressing the panic button early. We're just going out there and playing the game and I think we have a lot of trust and a lot of faith in one another."
This was a whupping of the type the pre-2004 Yankees used to routinely put on the Red Sox. Mookie Betts went 4-for-4 with a grand slam and continued to hit everything harder than a Pacific Rim robot swinging a barge. Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez each recorded multiple hits and RBIs. The Red Sox raced to a 4-0 lead and then blew things open with a nine-run sixth.
Even better, Sale made sure the Yankees offense would once again leave the park feeling hangdog. Besides three hits and a meaningless solo homer by Aaron Judge, Sale had his way with the visitors, particularly reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton missed the first seven fastballs Sale threw him, striking out twice as Red Sox fans celebrated gleefully. Making Stanton's failures even better, his Red Sox counterpart, J.D. Martinez, drove in a pair of runs with a sacrifice fly to the right field fence and a double high off the wall just inches to the left of the home run line in left-center. Stanton righted the ship enough to single and double in his final two at-bats, but he's still only hitting .196, and he still looks tentative.
At some point he'll find his groove and start winning series by himself. Same goes for slumping catcher Gary Sanchez, who took another oh-fer as his average dropped to .056, worst in the majors. The Yankees probably won't be a sub-.500 team for much longer. When they hit their stride, they'll be sprinting in short order.
It might not matter, though, because the Red Sox are very much for real. Their starting pitching remains outstanding and their lineup is coming alive, even with red-hot shortstop Xander Bogaerts on the 10-day disabled list with a broken ankle.
The second week of April generally isn't the time to make grand proclamations about the future, but the 9-1 Red Sox are off to the best start in franchise history, and it wouldn't be the first time we had an inkling this early. Only five years ago, the Red Sox opened the season by punching the Yankees in the face. Jonny Gomes scored from second on an infield single, Jackie Bradley worked a key walk against CC Sabathia, and the Red Sox set a tone with an 8-2 victory that carried right through Koji Uehara's final strike against the Cardinals in October.
"I mean, it's a good start, nine in a row now," Benintendi said. "Hopefully we can keep it going the rest of the season."
Consider the gauntlet thrown. The Red Sox are the hottest team in baseball and their offense hasn't even gotten rolling yet. This could be one hell of a summer.
