McAdam: With shellacking of Mariners, Red Sox finally claim a winning record

There was, correctly, no back-slapping or anything remotely self-congratulatory for the Red Sox after they finished off a 14-1 win over the Seattle Mariners that finally sent them over the .500 mark for the first time.

And why would there be?

If anything, it's something of an embarrassment that it took the Red Sox almost exactly one-quarter of the season to achieve a winning record. So much more had been expected of the defending world champions and no one could have forecast that it would take just over six weeks to have a record reflecting more wins than losses.

This isn't where the Red Sox were trying to go. But all things considered, it's not a bad place from which to start.

And that was the overriding feeling at Fenway on Friday.



The day was fraught with symbolism. The team was returning home from a road trip to begin a lengthy homestand, having reached the break-even point at the end of their just-concluded road trip. Not insignificantly, the Sox also had their visit to the White House behind them, and with it, an escape from all the questions about who was going to the ceremony and who was not.

And in a bit of symmetry, the opponents for the start of the homestand were the Seattle Mariners, the very team which helped start the Red Sox rolling downhill in the first series of the season, winning three-of-four, scoring 34 runs and belting 11 homers in the process.

Ever since, the Red Sox have been desperate to pull themselves out of the ditch they had dug for themselves, while the Mariners have been regressing. After starting the year 13-2, the Mariners have gone just 7-19 and the 14-1 beating they absorbed from the Red Sox sent them below .500 for the first time this season.

It was if the Red Sox and Mariners were passing each other at Fenway, two teams headed in opposite directions.

The Red Sox, of course, can't concern themselves with the Mariners' plight. They're too focused on continuing their own turnaround.

"That's the first goal,'' said Alex Cora of the team finally getting on the plus side. "We didn't play well (in the first couple of weeks), so we needed to get back to .500. We did it without playing our best baseball. We still can be better.''

Mostly, the improvement has come on the mound, a fact that might be easy to ignore on a night in which they totaled 14 runs. But unlike the first few weeks, when their starters were being shelled nightly and yielding home runs at a dizzying pace, the rotation -- even with two significant injuries -- has righted itself.

Since April 12, covering a span of 26 games, Red Sox' starting pitchers have an ERA of 3.08. Day after day, the team is, at the very least, being given a chance to win thanks to work of the starters, which was hardly the case as the team stumbled to its 6-13 start. In those 26 games, Red Sox starting pitching has allowed three runs or fewer in 23 of those.

Accordingly, with their lineup, scoring four or more runs per night isn't a tough ask. This month, the team leads the AL in runs scored and home runs.

They pounded out 14 runs Friday, getting contributions up and down the lineup.

"It seemed like we had something going every innings,'' noted Mitch Moreland who had a homer and two doubles, good for four RBI, "and everyone was doing their part.''

The arrival of warmer weather promises more offensive outbursts.

There's the old baseball adage that while you can't win a pennant in the first month, you can sometimes lose it, and for a time, it appeared that the Red Sox were intent on proving that point. When they left New York, having been swept by the Yankees in a two-game series last month, they found themselves tied for last and a full eight games off the lead in the division.

Since then, they've made a steady climb in the standings and now sit just four games out of first.

Again, no parades will be thrown for getting above water. But it beats where they were.

"We're definitely playing more like we want to,'' said Moreland. "(Having a winning record) sounds good. It's nice to kind of get back above that mark. But at the same time, that's obviously not the be-all, end-all. We're going to continue to work hard and keep doing the small things that we've been working on, trying to get better day-in, day-out.

"We've played well the last few weeks. We've got to continue to add to that.''