Jared Carrabis Reveals Main Concern With Red Sox After ‘Very Dissatisfying’ Road Trip originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Boston Red Sox completed their second road trip of the season on Wednesday, and overall, it was much better than their first.
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After going 1-5 in their first road trip of the year to start the season, the Red Sox went 3-3 on their second one. That means they’re still four games below .500 and last in the AL East, however, returning home at 7-11.
While Boston’s second road trip was an improvement, it was still a mixed bag, featuring two disappointing offensive performances and bad starts by the team’s top two starting pitchers, Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray. Accordingly, it still doesn’t feel like the Red Sox are playing great baseball yet.
“Very dissatisfying road trip,” podcast host Jared Carrabis said on 98.5’s “The Baseball Hour” with Tony Massarotti.
Massarotti then asked Carrabis what his “primary concern” is with Boston amid the team’s poor start.
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“I would say the offense and the ability to hit home runs,” Carrabis replied. “In this league, you have to be able to hit for power, you have to be able to hit home runs, and the Red Sox don’t do that very well… This is the Boston Red Sox. You shouldn’t be looking at a lineup that can’t hit home runs.”
To Carrabis’ point, that’s been an issue for the Red Sox for nearly a full year now. After trading Rafael Devers last June, they ranked 27th in home runs from that point forward. This year, they ranked 29th in homers and 24th in slugging percentage entering play on Thursday.
Boston failed to replace Devers’ power over the winter and also lost Alex Bregman, removing even more pop from the lineup. Willson Contreras has been a good addition in that department, but Caleb Durbin has not, cancelling each other out.
The Red Sox have good gap hitters, but not many home run hitters. There’s a reason ZiPS didn’t project any of their batters to reach 20 homers this year, and so far that prediction is playing out on the field.
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