Alan Greenwood

Before Nathan Eovaldi tried to be the stopper Wednesday night in the Bronx, there was a startling symmetry to the Red Sox awful start to the 2019 season. They were on course to lose 108 games.

Folks will be forgiven if they don’t recall the 108 regular-season games won by the 2018 Red Sox. The ballclub has done a masterful job in making 2018 seem deeply buried and wistfully forgotten.

It has not yet reached a point at which the Red Sox’ hopes for this season must be dropped into the circular file. It is still the beginning, but the end of the beginning is fast approaching.

All but J.D. Martinez have ranged from under-achieving to awful. The manager is looking at least slightly bewildered. And there is nothing any outsiders can do to save them from themselves.

There is only one cure – settling into a nice, long winning streak, one that can be measured in games and not innings.

FROM THE FILES: April 18, 1974 – “The 18th annual Elks-Park Recreation Boys Biddy Basketball League dinner was highlighted by the presentation of the city championship trophy to the Mustangs last night in the Nashua High cafetorium.

“More than 375 parents, players, city officials and Elks also saw the league’s most valuable player presented to Dana Bingham of the Mustangs, while the Lakers’ Henry St. Pierre received the runner-up MVP award.”

GET A GRIP: After the Bruins’ wretched performance in Game 3 of their playoff series against the Maple Leafs, a radio talk-show caller blamed their inconsistency on the media.

Really. Apparently the media made the B’s too smug with undue praise heading into the playoffs.

Blaming the press box wretches is nothing new, but it never ceases to sound mind blowing when someone says the media made a team win or lose.

If it were only that simple.

FINALLY: In its eternal quest to make all things much more complicated than they really are, baseball broadcasts are ratcheting up the use of a baseball’s speed off the bat and launch angles as replays of home runs are shown.

Such measurements have been around for some time as so-called analytics saturated the game, but windy announcers pontificating on them are getting beyond annoying.

Alan Greenwood can be reached at 594-1248, agreenwood @nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_ AlanG.

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