After a stellar start to the season, the Red Sox are ever so slightly coming back down to earth. As recently as May 15th, Boston boasted the best record in baseball. Now, in just a little over two weeks, the Red Sox have dropped to 5th in the MLB and 2nd in the AL East (2.0 games back of the Rays) after posting a 7-6 record over their last 13 games.
The Red Sox sit significantly behind the Rays and the Yankees in odds to win the AL East, per Draft Kings. The sportsbook still has New York as the favorites at +130 despite being 3.5 games behind the Red Sox and 5.5 behind the Rays. Tampa Bay is 2nd at +200 and Boston trails behind at +350 with the Blue Jays in a distant 4th at +550. Additionally, the most recent AL MVP odds have Xander Bogaerts in 3rd behind Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with 15-1 odds and J.D. Martinez five spots behind him at 25-1.
The Red Sox haven’t been favored to win the division at all this year despite holding the best record in the American League for the majority of the season. The Yankees have held firm as the favorites and Tampa Bay recently overtook Boston for second after catching fire. The Rays were 19-19 and 4th in the AL East just about three weeks ago. Now, they’ve won 16 of their last 17 games and have the best record in the MLB.
Despite the fact that the Red Sox aren’t the best team in the league anymore, they’re still vastly exceeding expectations. Boston has jumped from 50-1 odds to win the World Series at the start of the season to 22-1 today. Even if things go somewhat south, in these first two months of the season the team has played the best baseball Red Sox fans have seen in almost three years. That alone is more than almost anyone expected from the team coming into 2021.
Photo: (Winslow Townson – AP Photo)