Milwaukee Brewers
Almost two weeks into the Major League Baseball season, a couple of teams have shown surprising efforts so far. However, the most surprising team by far is the Milwaukee Brewers.
Let’s not mention their series against the Cardinals earlier this week. They lost to St. Louis by a combined 10-1 in the first two games of the series before salvaging game three on Wednesday.
Before that, however, they were the first team in the majors to win 10 games. Their offense ranks in the middle of the pack, 15th in runs scored and 13th in batting average.
With an average offense, why are they off to a great start? It’s the pitching. The team leads the majors with a 2.25 ERA, and they are only giving up a .211 average to opposing hitters.
It doesn’t really matter how the offense is doing when you don’t give up runs. It’s scary to think about what those numbers were before the series against the Cardinals series started.
Nobody expected the Brewers to get off to this good of a start, but they have. I’m not sure if they can keep it up or not, but they’ve started off the season so well it’s clear they’re the most surprising team.
-Garth Shanklin
Boston Red Sox
As of April, the 2014 MLB season is underway. From now through October, we get to enjoy America’s pastime, while we wait for all the great the midseason drama to unfold before our eyes.
Some of the early drama, however, comes with the start of the defending World Series champs.
The Boston Red Sox, comingoff a 97-win, championship year, have started sluggishly with a 5-9 record.
While the Red Sox’s season has begun less than desired, they have retained their pitching from the year before.
They’re second in the league in quality starts with 10, and have the league’s 12th best team ERA with 3.57.
So, why the slow start for the Sox?
The answer lies in their batting, as they’ve notched only 47 total runs and a team slugging percentage of .361, which is good for 24th and 25th in the league, respectively.
Boston has also suffered a stretch of injuries, with starters RF Shane Victorino and 3B Will Middlebrooks both seeing time on the disabled list.
Coming off of a championship season, any team would have some tough expectations to live up to.
But as of now, the Boston Red Sox aren’t even coming close to where they should be and fans expect them to be.
-Chris Kwiecinski
