Red Sox Early Struggles Shouldn't Continue

The Red Sox sit at the bottom of the American League East with a 4-10 record. It is only the beginning of a very long season but it's not just the record that has been a downer on the early part of the season; it is the way they have lost some of their games. They have blown leads and in some games weren't even competetive. For example, in todays game against the arch rival Yankees they were up 9-1 before eventually losing 15-9. If that isn't a motivator i dont know what is. I believe that this team, although poisoned with injuries, still has the capabilities to pull together as a team and at least be more competetive. As soon as key players such as Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford return this team will be much more competetive.

As for now without their injured players it is up to the veteran core of this team to step up. Manager Bobby Valentine, who has recently ruffled a few of veteran player's feathers, should take more of a back seat and let the players band together. Players like Pedroia, Youkilis, Ortiz and Beckett (just to name a few of the many veterans) need to light a fire under this team. They all need to let what happened at the end of the last season and the beggining of this season go and focus on the games to come. Its an extremely long season and if this team lets past losses bite away at them then they will stay in last place. They need to play with the mindset of "Game to game, inning to inning". If they can channel the 2004 playoff Red Sox and play with that motivation like they very well can, then there is no stopping them. The 100 year celebration should also be a bit of added motivation for this team along with the dissapointing end last year. The motivaton is there but it seems that nobody on this team has used it yet.

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