Alan Greenwood

There is no surer sign that this was not ever the Red Sox’ year than this:

They went into Wednesday night’s game against the Twins with a 23-38 record against teams with winning records.

Reflect on that for a nano second and know how silly it was for any of us to actually believe that they had a chance to join in the October championship chase.

It wasn’t one extended cold streak that chained the Red Sox to the upper tier of also-rans. From the outset they played with a stunning inconsistency. Brief streaks governed the roller coaster, from hot to cold and back again.

And the bottom line comes back to what it always comes back to – pitching.

Their bullpen took the brunt of the criticism, and for good reason. But in the name of fairness it is good to see that the starting rotation is finally being hit with its share of the blame.

Chris Sale never looked right physically, at least not from this distance. Rick Porcello and his penchant for serving up 420-foot bombs is eternally annoying. David Price has been David Price: Sort of good, sort of bad, sort of injured.

Nathan Eovaldi was on the injured list for most of the season, but the expectations he conjured during his October, 2018 run never wavered.

Eovaldi has been a middling pitcher throughout his career. His historic performance in the World Series was the abberation.

Plenty of decisions await Dave Dombrowski, or whoever replaces him. But the top priority is cobbling together a championship-caliber pitching staff.

TIME TRAVEL: Sept. 5, 1939 – “Despite rumors to the contrary, E.H. Labine, chairman of he Holman Stadium Commission, insists the new Sargent Ave. tennis courts will be ready for the opening rounds of the tennis tournament at 5 o’clock Friday, Sept. 8.

“Three former city champions will compete. Sam Webster is playing better than ever and insists he will regain the title he lost to Barnes last year. B.B. Mulvanity, a former title holder, will be a contestant this year and Russ Cole will be giving the youngsters stiff competition.

“For the convenience of the contestants tennis balls will be on sale at the court.”

FROM THE SENIOR GOAT: Bill Belichick’s response when asked at his Wednesday press conference if he still gets excited for Opening Day, or Night as is the case this year.

“Yeah. I like football. I like football season and all of the things that go with it.”

Believe it or not, there was no discenible twinkle in either eye.

AND FINALLY: Boston Globe baseball writer and premier statistical analyzer Alex Speier floated the following across the bottom of the screen during NESN’s Tuesday night broadcast of the Red Sox and Twins. The player in question is Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak.

“Dobnak had a 4.9 Uber driver rating. He was giving rides as recently as this spring training.”

Presumably he has salted away enough dough by now to give up his Uber career.

It makes one wonder what kind of cab driver Dave Cowens was during his abbreviated career change in 1977.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248, agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_AlanG.com.

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