It was just another night of pinball for the Red Sox.
The game was still in its infancy when the Sox had ambushed Arizona Diamondbacks starter Ian Kennedy in what proved a relatively easy victory. A pair of runs in the first inning courtesy of a David Ortiz missile (his first homer in almost two weeks) and three more runs in the third made the game a foregone conclusion.
The game was never again in doubt. On a night when Clay Buchholz did not have his best stuff, the offense ensured that he would not need it in the Sox’ 6-3 victory over Arizona. (Recap.)
“It’s a good way to play,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “David takes a real good swing, gets us on the board, then we added on.”
“It’s big going out there and having a three- or four-run cushion and not having to press or throw certain pitches,” Buchholz added.
The pattern has been seen on plenty of occasions in the 2010 season. The Sox have now played 66 games. In exactly half of them (33), the team has scored at least six runs. Only the Yankees (33 times in 64 games) have enjoyed consistently high run totals.
On the year, the Sox are averaging 5.4 runs a night, second most in the majors. Those regular offensive yields have punctured offseason skepticism about the club’s lineup prowess at the same time that they have given the Sox a terrific chance to win on a regular basis.
On nights when they score at least six runs, the Sox enjoy an .818 winning percentage (slightly below the major league average of .841). When scoring five runs or fewer, the team has an 11-22 (.333) record.
In some ways, the fact that the Sox offense has ranked as one of the best in baseball is less impressive than how the team has gotten to this point.
Rare have been the occasions when the entire lineup has been intact or in sync. The Sox have been, essentially, without leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury for the entire year, as a player who seemed ready for a breakout has instead been sidelined by a pair of rib injuries for all but nine games. Mike Cameron, who was expected to offer a power threat from the bottom of the order, has yet to go deep in 2010, and missed much of the year due to the impact of his abdominal tear. Jeremy Hermida, the team’s expected source of outfield depth, is likewise sidelined.
Those players who have remained in the lineup, meanwhile, have suffered their fair share of slumps. While Dustin Pedroia has started to look like himself at the plate in recent games, hitting .500 over his past five contests, he has endured lengthy streaks of futility. Ortiz’ remarkable month of May has been sandwiched by a dismal April and a month of June that, until the last four games, also represented little production.
“David, that’s going to happen,” said Francona. “When [his May production is at] such a clip, you’re not going to maintain that for six straight months. It’s hard to do.”
Victor Martinez was an easy mark in the lineup for much of the first two months of the season before a June burst. J.D. Drew has run hot and cold for the year. Ditto for Marco Scutaro as he’s fought through a neck injury that has robbed him of strength.
The team has had to rely on players who were expected to be either occasional role players or who weren’t expected to be in the big leagues at all. Players like Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava have had spells in the lineup that would have been difficult to forecast prior to the year.
Yet the sum has been greater than the parts with the Sox lineup. Over the season -- particularly over a period of roughly the last two months, following a dreadful start -- the Sox have been a team with enough talented hitters to make up for the struggles of any one or two player at any given time.
Aside from Adrian Beltre and Jason Varitek, few Red Sox regulars have performed in a fashion that is significantly above what they’ve accomplished in recent years. So long as the Sox do not endure another host of injuries, there is no obvious reason to expect the team’s offensive performance to fall from its current perch among the league’s elite.
The development runs counter to most offseason expectations. The Sox, however, maintain that they are not shocked by this level of production.
“[GM Theo Epstein] and his guys really spend a lot of time trying to look at where they think we’ll finish, which I’m glad they do. That’s kind of where all the numbers pointed is exactly where we are,” Francona said on the Dale & Holley Show on Tuesday.
“How you get to that is sometimes you get contributions in different ways, but I don’t think we felt the panic that was going up on the radio waves as much you guys. I think we thought that we’d be OK. Maybe we wouldn’t be prolific, but we’d feel pretty good about this.”
At this stage of the season, the reason for those sentiments are apparent.