On April 1 of last year, the Red Sox were set to open up the 2021 season at home against the Orioles when Mother Nature had other plans. Rain pushed Opening Day back 24 hours, which must have felt like a sick April Fool’s Day joke after the team’s wayward 2020 campaign. What followed was an abysmal three-game sweep at the hands of an eventual 110-loss team by a combined score of 18–5. The prognosis for Boston felt grim before it completed one turn through the rotation.
As it turned out, all was not lost. The Red Sox won their next nine games to usher in one of the most surprisingly successful campaigns in the league. Boston hardly fits the profile of a scrappy underdog, but few expected the team to emerge from the loaded American League East and advance all the way to the ALCS before the season began—much less after that three-game sweep against the Orioles. After an eventful offseason that saw gobs of talent flood into the division, how well has the team positioned itself to make another postseason run?
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