E-Mail This Article to a Friend The Red Sox status report at the quarter-pole BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Doesn’t seem possible that the Major League Baseball season is nearly one-fourth complete — I mean, cripes, summer is still officially a month away, and Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez are still talking to the media! But by Thursday evening, when the NBA’s final four will finally be determined, the Boston Red Sox will have played 41 of their 162 games for the season. So it’s worth investigating what we know thus far and what we can extrapolate for the rest of the way.

If it’s baseball season, it must be Yankees in first, Red Sox in second, right? Roger that, so to speak. Sox fans have reluctantly climbed down from the high horse they mounted when the Crimson Hose streaked out to their 15-6 start, because in the last three weeks, the team’s plummeted back to terra firma with a 7-10 record. And that four-and-a-half-game lead in the AL East that the Sox enjoyed over the Pinstripers as of April 29? Goombye, particularly after a dreadful road trip through Texas and Ohio that at one point saw Boston drop five straight. Still, as mediocre as the Sox have played in the past few weeks, they’re still only a half-game behind the Yanks as the Bostonians head to picturesque Tampa Bay for a three-game series.

What sticks in Red Sox Nation’s craw is the fact that while the Yankees were playing the presumed iron of the West — Oakland, Seattle, and Anaheim — Boston was not building a lead in the standings. Instead, the Sox were losing three straight in the Lone Star State (at 22-15, the Strangers are admittedly a much more formidable foe than anticipated, but still pitching-poor), dropping four of seven to rebuilding Cleveland (17-19), and splitting a four-game series with underachieving Toronto (16-22).

Yet the AL East race is still tight as Haystacks Calhoun’s overalls, as we know it will be all season long. On this date a year ago, Boston’s 26-16 log was also but a game behind the Bombers (and perhaps you remember the rest of the story). Indeed, the Sox’ current home/away/divisional record is remarkably similar to what it was last May, an impressive feat given the well-documented fact that Boston has been missing two significant players (Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon) for the first six weeks, while the Yanks have been relatively injury-free, other than Jason Giambi’s occasional back spasms.

The encouraging signs for the Red Sox? Let’s go down the list.

Pitching. Anticipated as the team’s strong point. The 2004 Sox do indeed lead the league with a 3.48 cumulative ERA, which is nearly half a run ahead of the pitching-rich A’s. Boston also leads the AL in strikeouts, shutouts, and hits and runs allowed. So why does the Cowboy Upped fandom collectively wear a long face that would make Smarty Jones proud? Maybe because fans expected the savior, Curt Schilling, to be undefeated instead of just 4-3, and the other trio of established starters — Pedro Martinez (2-2), Derek Lowe (3-3), and Tim Wakefield (2-2) — to be better than .500. A fair hope, but let’s be reasonable. Three of the four have ERAs significantly under four (only Lowe’s 4.74 is excessive), and it cannot be denied that the entire staff has been consistently sabotaged by poor defense (more about that later). Fans shouldn’t get too concerned about Schilling; as for Martinez, despite having given up as many home runs this season (seven) as he did all last year, he has shown he can still pitch better than 90 percent of the starters in the majors (although whether he’s worth $500,000 a start is debatable). Wakefield’s had a couple of tough outings recently, but perhaps he’s been distracted by his new wife’s pregnancy, which culminated in the birth of their son, Knuckles, over the weekend. Lowe’s struggles this season eerily match last year’s, although in 2003 he was able to pick up victories despite giving up a lot of runs; he hasn’t been so fortunate this season, given the night-to-night inconsistency of the Sox offense. Most encouraging, though, is the re-emergence of fifth starter Bronson Arroyo, who shut out the Blue Jays on Saturday in his first outing since replacing sidewinder Byung-Hyun Kim in the rotation. Meanwhile, the bullpen has done a nice job when the team is tied or ahead in games, but seems to lose interest and pitches without purpose or effectiveness when the Sox are behind. Assuming the offense begins to break out of its season-long slump (particularly if and when Nomah and Nixon return) — which has to this point lumbered along at a .267 clip (22 points lower than last year’s juggernaut) — then key relievers Alan Embree, Scott Williamson, and Mike Timlin won’t get accustomed to pitching with a deficit, and will instead continue to lead the league in bullpen ERA (2.74). And nobody’s come close to complaining about newly acquired closer Keith Foulke, whose 0.43 ERA and unblemished saves record is a 180-degree improvement over last year’s committee efforts.

Hitting. Who can rightfully complain when the back-up catcher is batting .357, the number-three hitter is second in the AL in homers, the clean-up hitter is posting MVP numbers, and your eight hitter is leading the league’s position players in walks? Not too many should, but remember, this is New England, home of the Fenway Frank and the Wiener-Whiner Line, so those kinds of uplifting topics are all too often put aside in favor of the struggles endured by other marquee members of the local nine. And while Boston fans sometimes have short memories, they recall that last year’s team was a record-setting Katie-bar-the-door run-scoring machine, while this one is better known for its dearth of clutch hitting. The absence of Garciaparra and Nixon means continued starts for guys like Mark Bellhorn (who despite his 39 walks is batting .230 and is murder in the field), Cesar Crespo (.186), David McCarty (.229), and Gabe Kapler (.235). Those career back-ups have put the kibosh on plenty of rallies, but the established starters have not exactly run roughshod over the league either, with "Johnny of Nazareth" Damon (.277), Pokey Reese (.240), Kevin Millar (.277), David Ortiz (.265), and last year’s AL batting champ, Bill Mueller (.255), all hitting below their career averages (in Mueller’s case, 70 points lower than in 2003). The team may be less than last year’s was with the sticks, but one would anticipate that things will only improve over time, especially when the walking wounded walk through that door.

Fielding. Ugh. Thirty-five errors in 37 games, and a .976 team fielding percentage. That, ladies and gentlemen, is good for dead last in Major League Baseball, tied with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers! Grrrr. Reese has done a remarkable job spelling Garciaparra at shortstop, but there’s no hiding the fact that he and Mueller have combined for 12 errors on the left side of the infield, while the Chicago Cubs as a team have committed only 16 miscues all season long. Bellhorn has been credited for only three errors, but long-time observers know that he’s had a hand in a lot of the problems around the second-base bag. His banishment to the bench upon number-five’s return to the line-up will be a cause for celebration by those who worship at the altar of up-the-middle team defense. A total of 25 of the 158 runs surrendered by Red Sox pitching have been unearned, and that discrepancy is higher than for any other team in baseball right now. Indirectly, those errors contribute to longer innings, higher pitch counts, and ultimately greater deficits from which to fight back. So this issue appears to be the Red Sox’ sole significant weakness.

In the coming weeks, Boston will enjoy its first scheduled day off in three weeks on Monday, then take on the Devil Rays in St. Pete before hosting the Jays, A’s (20-17), and the sagging Mariners (13-24). The team then embarks on a quick road trip to KC and Anaheim prior to the beginning of interleague play, which this season will pit the Sox against the NL West teams (minus the D-Backs). In the immediate future, Sox fans will be focused on the countdown to the GarciaNixon return (have we mentioned they’ve been out?), the Sox’ ability to beat the teams that they should (on paper) dominate, and the level of play with which Boston will greet the likes of Oakland and runaway clubhouse leader (but injury-ravaged) Anaheim. While this is going on, the TheyBetterWinStripers will be off on a brutal 12-game roadie through Anaheim, Texas, Baltimore, and Tampa (well, not that brutal) before home engagements with the Rangers and O’s set the stage for their interconference match-ups.

Red Sox fans fully expected their loaded team to be more than six games above .500 at this point, but Yankee fans probably anticipated a heckuva lot better than 22-15 for their $180 million traveling band of all-stars. It is what it is, and the two teams’ parallel courses will surely continue to run through the second, third, and fourth quarters of this 2004 season.

Only one-quarter’s done as we speak, and Sox fans should acknowledge that while their team hasn’t exactly torn up the league, it hasn’t gone in the tank, either. It’s obvious that most of these Red Sox care, and they’re not going to put up with indifference or shoddy fielding or nightly first-inning deficits very much longer. Better days presumably lie ahead.

Yankees in first, Red Sox in second. Same as it ever was.

Bring on the boys of summer.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com