NESO'S TAKE ON SPORTS

Both the Red Sox and the Texas Rangers seemed like they were still playing a Spring Training game.

Both teams made early, generally inexcusable errors, while both C.J. Wilson and Jon Lester did not have complete command of their pitches, often missing their spots.

For the Red Sox there was certainly a lot of bad (considering they lost the game), but a lot of positives came from Game 1 as well.

I’ll start with the negatives, so we can end on a positive note!

Negatives

1. Jon Lester pitched poorly. He recorded zero strikeouts for the first time in an outing since 2008, and gave up three home runs for the first time in his career.

The silver lining? He was able to tough out 5 1/3 innings, and he seemed to gain command towards the end of the game, retiring six straight batters at one point.

2. Daniel Bard pitched an atrocious game. Part of it can be attributed to his lack of velocity on his fastball (most of his pitches were around 95 MPH, instead of 99 MPH), but even with the decreased velocity Bard was missing his spots.

The velocity will come as Bard continues to ramp up from the offseason, and he is the type of pitcher who will throw a streak of scoreless innings, but then have a horrible game. He got the bad game out of the way early…

3. Carl Crawford aand the bottom third of the lineup combined for zero hits. Crawford’s zero is not concerning, given that he has never hit C.J. Wilson well, batting .133 against the pitcher for his career.

Positives

What is concerning is that the bottom three hitters (Mike Cameron, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Marco Scutaro) had no hits. Keep in mind, Cameron is a career .260 hitter, and Saltalamacchia only hit .167 last year.

Scutaro is not worrying, since he has been a consistent on-base guy and is a patient hitter, but when J.D. Drew is not playing against lefties, the Sox have a major hole with Cameron and a fairly unproven Salty.

If Salty can put up decent numbers and get on base consistently, say higher than a .335 OBP, then the problem will be less significant, but he is certainly a question mark.

Now, on to the positives:

1. David Ortiz hit a home run. Enough said given his struggles in the early-goings of the past two seasons.

2. Jacoby Ellsbury is back. He was a monster during the Spring, and his torrid hitting is carrying into the season. He looks comfortable again.

3. The Sox lineup is unquestionably one of the most dangerous in the league, and if the bottom hitters can get on-base then the offense should have no problems.

To sum it up there was a lot of bad, but a lot of the negatives can be attributed to early-season rust evident on every team, and the Red Sox certainly have a bright season ahead of them.

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Image Credits: Junko Kimura/Getty Images, SI