McAdam: For reeling Red Sox, next two weeks represent their last chance

Your Red Sox schedule indicates that the 2019 season began March 28 in Seattle. Technically, this is true.

But in reality, the Red Sox season begins Monday.

Monday marks the start of a 14-game stretch against just two opponents -- the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees. The Sox will play three at Tropicana Field this week, then host the Yankees at Fenway for four later this week. After the Yankees leave town, the Rays come in for three more before the Sox travel to Yankees for four more.

Fourteen games in fourteen days.

What's at stake? Only the Red Sox' season. And if the Red Sox don't make the most of their opportunity, their season will be over when that stretch of games is complete.



It's temping, especially after the Sox dropped two-of-three to the Orioles this weekend, to say that it's already over, that no matter what the Sox do in this key stretch, they're out of the postseason picture.

That's unnecessarily dire. The Red Sox are just 3.5 games back of the second wild-card spot with 62 games remaining. In modern baseball, any team a few games over .500 is a de facto playoff contender.

But while the Sox remain very much in the playoff picture, a bigger question has emerged: assuming they can qualify for the postseason, are they a threat to anything once they get there? Increasingly, it's getting harder to believe so.

First place in the division, meanwhile, is now a pipe dream. The Sox may have 12 games remaining with New York, but it's hard to imagine the Sox overtaking the Yanks. The Yankees hold a lead of 11 games and the Red Sox have beaten them just once in seven tries to date. It would take a complete reversal of the '78 season race for the Red Sox to make up that much ground. With the Yankees currently far healthier and armed with a more complete roster now than they had in the first half of the season, that hardly seems doable.

That leaves the wild card as the Red Sox only path to the postseason. But the Yankees remain part of that equation, too, with the prospect of eight head-to-head meetings over the next two weeks.

The Rays, for now, offer a more inviting target. Until rebounding with a win Sunday over the Chicago White Sox, the Rays had dropped five straight and, like the Red Sox before them, tumbled out of contention for the division title. They lead the Sox by just two games.

The series which begins Monday -- and the other one against Tampa next week in Boston -- will give the Red Sox a chance to pull even, or even ahead of, the Rays. Later in the year, there will be opportunities to go head-to-head with both Cleveland and Texas, two other clubs in the wild card chase.

The 5-0 loss to the O's Sunday left the Sox at just 5-5 since the All-Star break, not exactly the springboard they were hoping for as they enter this critical juncture of the schedule. Whereas the Sox somewhat redeemed themselves by beating up on lesser teams in the first half, they went just 4-3 in consecutive series against the Blue Jays and Orioles, who, together, are 61 games under .500.

It may not take the full 14 games to determine the Red Sox' fate. A little more than halfway through the stretch, the July 31 deadline will arrive. If the Sox don't make up ground in the next week and prove themselves viable, what motivation will there be for ownership and the front office to seek improvements at the deadline?

Given John Henry's comments last month about payroll concerns, dealing off prospects and taking on salary would, at present, seem to be a case of throwing good money after bad.

Beyond the ground they need to make up and the teams they need to leapfrog in the standings, the Red Sox are tasked with another challenge: proving that they're worth investing in.

Not all of the signs have been discouraging of late. Mookie Betts has looked like his 2018 self over the last three weeks and the arrival of Nathan Eovaldi to the bullpen will provide another quality arm for the late innings.

But the starting rotation -- which allowed a mind-blowing 16 runs to the 13th ranked offense in the American League this weekend -- remains far from dependable, making it difficult for the Sox to gain the traction necessary for a sustained run.

Still, it's there in front of them. Fourteen games in 14 days.

The season begins now. How long it lasts is entirely up to the Red Sox.