COMMENTARY
It could be so much worse than this.
I say that in two ways. When I recently compared this season to the failed 2014 title defense, I left out one critical caveat: For all the similarities between the teams, up through the big internal move come July attempting one last time to spark the thing, the 2014 Red Sox were not, after mid-May, on a playoff-qualifying track by any measure.
Fangraphs’ Playoff Odds dropped them below 50 percent to qualify on May 17 and, when Boston threw the season to the wolves on July 31, the Sox were 48-60 and 10.