Red Sox at 7-3 after first road trip: Takeaways from 10 games on the West Coast

The season-opening 10-game, 11-day West Coast trip had been circled on the Red Sox calendar all offseason.

A 5-5 record seemed like a realistic expectation, and wouldn’t have been a bad start for a Red Sox team projected to finish last in the American League East once again. Instead, they return home Tuesday as the last team in the majors to host their home opener, sitting at 7-3. It marks the club’s best start through 10 games since 2021 when they also began 7-3.

With their toughest trip of the season out of the way, the Red Sox play 14 of their next 19 games at home. They don’t have another trip longer than six games until August.

Getting off to a strong start was manager Alex Cora’s focus all winter. It’s why he held monthly Zoom calls over the winter with his team and why he implored them to come ready to spring training with a focused, intentional approach rather than ramp up in spring.

Yes, it’s not as if the Red Sox started the season against the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, but a series split with the Seattle Mariners, a sweep of the Oakland A’s and taking two of three from the Los Angeles Angels was about as close to a best-case scenario as the Red Sox could have hoped for. That they capped the long trip with a 12-2 trouncing of the Angels on Sunday, a day after losing shortstop Trevor Story for the foreseeable future, made it all the more important.

Cora learned his lessons from 2019 when the Red Sox opened the season with a similar 10-game West Coast swing. They were coming off a short offseason after winning the World Series, but were admittedly unprepared for the season. That 3-8 trip set a bad tone and doomed the rest of the 2019 season. Cora has talked about failing to prepare the team that season and felt their preparation overall the last few seasons has been lacking. The increased intensity in spring training was noticed and it’s largely carried over through the very early part of the season. There have been mistakes on the base paths and on defense, but a 1-0 win in Oakland and an 8-6 win over the Angels on Friday night in the game Story was injured were games the Red Sox likely would have lost last season. It was far from a perfect road trip — a crucial error from Rafael Devers on Saturday led to a 2-1 loss — but it was much better than expected.

The loss of Story defensively will undoubtedly be an issue going forward. Story was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday after landing hard on his left shoulder on a diving play. An MRI revealed a dislocation of his non-throwing shoulder. He’s not on the 60-day IL yet, but there’s still a strong possibility of surgery to correct the injury. He’s scheduled for another exam Monday by Red Sox team doctors who will have a more concrete plan for his recovery. Infielder David Hamilton was called up over the weekend as an immediate replacement for Story, but there are other options still on the table that the Red Sox might consider. Hamilton, for what it’s worth, hit the first homer of his career to put the Red Sox on the board in Sunday’s win.

First big league homer for David Hamilton! pic.twitter.com/abFPAGv68r

— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 7, 2024

As the Red Sox return home, they’ll have a big test against the reigning division winners in the Baltimore Orioles followed by three more against the Angels and then four against the Cleveland Guardians next week.

A few takeaways from the first 10 games:

• Through 10 games, Boston leads the majors with a 1.49 ERA, the club’s lowest mark through 10 games in the Live Ball Era (since 1920). Their 105 strikeouts are second in the majors to the Los Angeles Dodgers and are the most in franchise history through 10 games. Red Sox starters threw at least five innings in each of the first seven games, before failing to finish the fifth on Friday and Saturday. Tanner Houck got the rotation back on track Sunday with six scoreless innings against the Angels. Houck has yet to give up a run through two starts.

There’s still work to be done, but it’s clear the pitching staff, and particularly the rotation, has taken a step forward. In spring training, we delved into pitching coach Andrew Bailey’s Run Prevention Unit and the hundreds of hours on Zooms he and his pitching group tallied in mapping out and meeting with each pitcher to set plans for the season. Pitchers have bought into those plans in the early going with promising results. Now it’s a matter of keeping it up.

One noticeable change has been the fastball usage. In the first series against Seattle, Red Sox starters were hardly using their fastball, partly based on a game plan, but it’s certainly been an overall philosophy Bailey is implementing this season. Since FanGraphs began tracking such data, the 2024 Red Sox have thrown the fewest fastballs of any team since 2007. Notably, the top six teams with the fewest fastballs thrown are all teams from this season, suggesting a league-wide trend.

Throwing fewer fastballs means throwing more breaking balls, which inherently adds stress to the arm, so Bailey did note they’ve been working closely with the medical staff and pitchers have been doing some extra preventative work to keep their arms healthy. Still, it’ll be something to watch going forward.

• In the bullpen, reliever Justin Slaten — a Rule 5 pick — has yet to give up a run through 5 2/3 innings, while Greg Weissert hasn’t allowed an earned run in five appearances.

• On the offensive side, Sunday’s 12-run outburst provided a bounce back from an offensive drought on Saturday when the club struck out 14 times. The 12 runs also boosted their plus-26 run differential, but regardless, the offense has shown its potential. There have been some warts at points over the first 10 games, stretches where they’ve missed opportunities and left runners on base. That’s partially attributed to pitchers being ahead of hitters at this point in the year and partially due to a long early-season road trip. Yet how they fare against stronger pitching and if they can take advantage of being at home at Fenway Park will be key factors in sustaining their early season success. The offense has lofty goals. They haven’t scored 800 runs in a season since 2021 and have been trying to instill more of a group mentality in approaching starting pitchers.

• Among the hitters who’ve impressed early are Reese McGuire, Tyler O’Neill and Jarren Duran. Duran has been every bit the spark plug Cora hoped he’d be when he labeled him his leadoff man early in spring training. Duran was initially worried he’d lose some speed and explosiveness coming off toe surgery late last season but that seems hardly the case. He’s been a weapon on the base paths going 6-for-7 in stolen base attempts and not only has created scoring opportunities with stolen bases and aggressive running, but by distracting pitchers and defenders when he’s on base. Duran’s relationship with outfield and baserunning coach Kyle Hudson has helped him elevate his game even further.

• O’Neill, meanwhile, leads the team with five homers, tied with Mookie Betts for most in the majors, and has been solid in the outfield as well.

• McGuire has been an unexpected source of power in the early going. While he’s always been an offense-first catcher, McGuire has been on a tear through the first 10 games, going 8-for-24 with two homers, including a three-shot on Sunday. That offense has earned him starts in six of the first 10 games over Connor Wong.

• Rookie Ceddanne Rafaela hasn’t done much at the plate yet with an approach that’s still a little too aggressive. It’s likely the Red Sox will let him live through the offensive growing pains because he’s become a game-changer on defense in center field and now might become an option at shortstop. Cora admitted using Rafaela at shortstop is an option they’re discussing.

• Bobby Dalbec has struggled, going 0-for-9 with six strikeouts, and it’s possible the team turns to infielder Romy Gonzalez during the homestand. Wilyer Abreu has also struggled, going 2-for-16 with six strikeouts.

• Both Vaughn Grissom (hamstring) and Rob Refsnyder (toe) are still not projected to return until the end of April at the earliest but will join the team in Boston this week to be reevaluated.

A few upcoming milestones to keep track of…

• Cora notched his 447th win on Sunday and is closing in on fifth place all-time in Red Sox managerial wins. Jimmy Collins currently ranks fifth with 455 wins.

• Kenley Jansen moved ahead of Billy Wagner for sixth all-time with his 423rd save on Friday night. John Franco is next on the list with 424.

• Devers, with 174 career homers, needs five homers to pass Nomar Garciaparra (178) for fifth-most in Red Sox history. Jason Varitek is next on the list at 193.

(Photo of Devers: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)