Full-scale blackout

If there’s one thing we knew we could count on for the 2015 Red Sox it was offensive production.

How could they miss with sluggers like David Ortiz, Mike Napoli, and Hanley Ramirez in the lineup?

The pitching was suspect, but the bats would be hopping and, the logic went, those hot bats would more than compensate for a starting pitching staff that lacked an ace.

Early on, the logic seemed to play out. The Red Sox offense looked promising, scoring an average 5.9 runs per game to go 7-3 over their first 10 of the season, despite allowing 5.2 runs per game by the shaky starters.

But it wasn’t long before what was assumed might be a temporary power loss turned into a full-scale blackout.

Most infuriating of all was that once the starting pitching stabilized, the offense still couldn’t find its way to a win even when needing just a run or two to make it happen.

In all, the Sox have scored a measly 3.75 runs per game through their first 59 games of the season putting them 4th lowest in the American League and 7th lowest in all of baseball.

10 run games

On Sunday, June 7, the Red Sox offense exploded to score 7 runs in the 8th inning. It was a thrilling 7-4 win, coming late in the game and after 7 lackluster earlier innings. 7 runs, particularly in one inning, represented solid output from a team that has scored 7+ runs in a game only 10 times through their first 59 contests.

The lack of offensive production has made the Red Sox the only team in the American League, and one of just two in baseball, not to score 10 or more runs in a game so far this season (the other team is the Phillies). By this point in the 2013 season the Sox had already enjoyed 5 such games, and even had 9 games with 10+ runs scored in the Lost Valentine season of 2012.

Over the first 59 games of a season since 1914, there have been only two other seasons beside this one with no games in which the Red Sox scored 10+ runs. In 1943, the first came on July 3rd, their 68th game. They’d have 4 more that season.
 

The second time the Re Sox didn’t score 10+ runs in any games through the first 59 was in 2014, making this season and last the only back-to-back such seasons in Red Sox history since at least 1914. Boston went on to collect 8 such games for the 2014 season, the first coming on June 13 against the Indians in Boston Game #67.

Over the first 59 games of a season the most 10+run games came in 1950 (12 games).

For full season the most 10+ run Red Sox games was in 1950 (30 games). The fewest was in 1992 (3 games).

Appreciation to @RSNStats follower @donhewitt3 for his Twitter comments that inspired this post.