The first month of the season has been a marathon, with the Red Sox playing 36 games in 39 days out of the chute with only three scheduled off days.
But starting on Monday, the Red Sox are going to get a lot more breaks.
Monday marks the first of what will be almost weekly off days for the rest of the season, with the Red Sox scheduled to have only three calendar weeks without a day off the remainder of the year. The majority of those off days will come on Thursdays, and starting May 29 the club will get every Thursday off for six straight weeks and 11 out of 12 weeks overall into late August.
That is almost unheard of for a major league club and much more in line with a typical minor league schedule, where clubs get every Monday off. Having such consistent breaks built into the schedule could provide a huge lift for the Red Sox, with manager Alex Cora saying he’ll have a much easier time keeping everyone fresh.
“I think obviously position player wise we don’t have to have scheduled off days for them and we’ll take advantage of it,” Cora said prior to Sunday’s game. “Pitching-wise I think it’s too early to start skipping guys and moving guys around and getting (Garrett) Crochet out there every five days, because I think if we take care of them now then in August and September we can play that game because the schedule is very similar to the off days.”
Cora also noted that regular off days will allow him to be much more aggressive with the bullpen, especially with guys like Garrett Whitlock. He described a scenario where Whitlock could throw two innings on a Tuesday, rest on Wednesday and then pitch again on Friday after the off day having only missed one game. The club could take a similar approach with its other high leverage arms, using Aroldis Chapman or Justin Slaten on Wednesday knowing both will be available again next time out on Friday.
More rest could also help the Red Sox break out of their early-season funk.
Despite facing the easiest schedule of any team in baseball, the Red Sox go into Monday’s off day at only 18-18. They went 4-3 in their seven games against the woeful Chicago White Sox and are currently 2-5 against the Toronto Blue Jays, including several horrible losses like last week’s two late collapses.
Only six of Boston’s first 36 games have come against clubs that entered Sunday at or above .500, and while the Red Sox have held their own in those games (3-3), they haven’t been able to capitalize against the weaker competition on their schedule.
The Red Sox probably have to hope at least some of their inconsistent play can be attributed to the early season grind, because while the schedule is about to lighten up, the quality of their competition isn’t.
After facing Texas this week at Fenway Park, three of Boston’s four subsequent opponents will be clubs that currently boast winning records. That includes a road date with the Detroit Tigers, who currently own the American League’s best record, and a home series against the New York Mets, who entered Sunday trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by one game for the best record in MLB.
The Red Sox aspire to be a contender like those clubs, but at this stage of the season they remain a .500 team. It’ll be up to them to turn things around and start stringing together more wins, but if we look up a couple months down the road and the Red Sox are still stuck in neutral, they won’t have the schedule to blame.