Media MonsterMLB

Red Sox Fall To 0-6, Fanbase Moves Closer To Ledge

The Boston Red Sox are 0-6. Does that mean they should pack it in? Of course not. Does it mean their 2011 season is off to a much worse beginning than anyone could have reasonably guessed? You bet. And their latest setback, a particularly frustrating 1-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians today, pushed the team’s fans into yet deeper misery just 1/27 of the way through the season.

The prospective second coming of the ’27 Yankees has scored just 16 runs in six games despite two prominent offseason acquisitions (Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez) meant to beef the team up at the plate, and of course didn’t manage to cross the plate once today. All the more infuriating – the game ended with the tying run in scoring position. Yet more infuriating – the out was made on the basepaths by a player (Darnell McDonald) brought into the game for his running ability.

With that out of the way – yes, it’s early, and yes, it’s been said in any number of ways by reasonable people that it’s far, far too early to count the Red Sox out. When their season-opening losing streak reached five, Baseball Reference showed that while it’s rare for a team that starts that poorly to reach the playoffs, it’s not unprecedented. Baseball maven Joe Sheehan pointed out that, yes, most good teams hit rough patches. Even Yankees fan Jimmy Traina remained unconvinced it was time for the Sox to worry after loss No. 4.

But that was two losses ago. Here was Traina today. And perhaps providing a better glimpse into how hard Red Sox fans are taking the rough start, here’s what Ken Tremendous (a.k.a. Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur), a rabid Sox fan and normally one to scoff at small sample sizes, is tweeting these days:

Oof.

Oh my God the Red Sox are going to be 0-5.

I hate baseball so much. Whose stupid idea was baseball?

I know batting average is dumb, but six of nine Red Sox regulars are hitting .182 or below through last inning.

Red Sox team OPS: .575. Red Sox opponents’ OPS: 1.034

There are no words.

Red Sox must play .608 baseball for the entire rest of the year to win 95 games. It is April 7th.

Please stop telling me it’s only six games. I know it’s only six games. The important fact is that they have lost all six. 3 to the Indians.

He’s not happy. And if we were Red Sox fans around here, we wouldn’t be happy either. Yes, we could try to console ourselves with rational thought and data that indicates all is not lost, but it doesn’t change that the Red Sox have not tasted victory yet this season. And until that happens, expect the tweets from the likes of Schur to just get more and more despondent.