Gammons on Felger & Mazz: Red Sox Playing 'Like They Did In September'
BOSTON (CBS) - Peter Gammons of MLB.com joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger & Mazz on Wednesday, as he will every Wednesday during the baseball season, to discuss the poor start of the Boston Red Sox.
What is wrong with the Sox? Gammons starts by discussing the lack of quality starts from the pitching staff, both at the start of this year and at the end of last season.
"They've gone seven innings five times since August of last year. You just wear out your entire bullpen and your position players," said Gammons. "When you're bringing the bullpen in the fifth, sixth innings you have no chance to survive."
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Does Gammons consider this start to be a continuation of the collapse at the end last year? Mazz thought they would "come out and play well in the early part of this season because they had to." Gammons agrees, and expected better efforts from the team with a new voice leading the way.
"I thought that being ignited by Bobby Valentine's personality would bring them out of the chute much faster," Gammons said, also recognizing that this opening stretch may be the toughest set of games that the Red Sox will face all season.
He did, though, think that playing this early schedule was an advantage.
"I thought before the season that actually playing this schedule was an advantage. It's easy to steal wins early in the season… but instead they have played remarkably like they did in September," said Gammons.
Also, does Gammons know what is really up with Josh Beckett? What does he know about Terry Francona declining the invitation to return for Fenway's 100th Anniversary?