Where's the Panic Button in Boston?

Darnell McDonald is tagged out at second,
handing the Red Sox their sixth straight
loss Thursday.

When Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein went out and brought in left-handers sluggers, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, this offseason, expectations went through the roof in 2011.

The Red Sox have gotten out of the gate rather slow losing their first six games to open the season. Being swept by the defending American League champion, Texas Rangers is condonable given the series was played in Arlington. However, losing to a Cleveland Indian team that won all of 69 games a year ago and 24 games under .500, is unacceptable.

Boston has five starters batting under .200 to begin the year and three others under .250. The only starter that is batting over .300 through the first six games is Gonzalez with a batting average at .305.

There is no question a lineup as deep as Boston's will not stay this cold the entire season. The question mark on this Red Sox team is their pitching staff. Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz both had breakout campaigns in 2010, but it's the veterans that are raising the concerns.

2003 World Series Most Valuable Player Josh Beckett is coming off an injury plagued year, where he only made 21 starts with six wins and an earned run average at 5.78. Even though John Lackey pitched 215 innings his first year in Boston, more than an other Red Sox starter, it was not the type of year the Sox expected when the signed him to that five-year $82 million deal.

Those veterans will need to bounce back if Boston wants to reach the expectations that have set for themselves over the last decade.

So far the pitching has not been anything but spectacular. Four of the Red Sox first six losses have come at the hands of their starters. The other two coming from flame throwing set-up man Daniel Bard, whose ERA is 16.88 to start the year.

Boston's pitching staff as a whole has given up 14 home runs and 38 total runs in their six-game tail spin.

The last time a team started the season on a losing streak and won the World Series was none another than the hated New York Yankees. In 1998, the Yankees started off 0-3 and went on to win 114 regular season games and Major League record 125 games, including the postseason. It should be noted that no team has ever started 0-4 and won the World Series in the same year.

The Red Sox have a huge weekend series with New York starting Friday afternoon, it's their 99th Opening Day in Fenway Park. If the Red Sox open up the season 0-7, they will try and do something no other team has done after losing their first seven contests, make the postseason.

If history stays true, the boo birds will be out and it will be another disappointing season for the Fenway Faithful.

A-Gon for MVP

The Boston Red Sox added another potent bat to their already dangerous lineup, trading for first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez. With this move to Beantown, he might be the front-runner for the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 2011.

Gonzalez is a former first overall pick by the Florida Marlins back in 2000 and one of the few that has lived up to his potential at the Major League level. A San Diego native, Gonzalez has played the last five seasons of his career with the San Diego Padres, becoming a two-time All-Star and  two-time Gold Glove winner in the process. Gonzalez has averaged 32 home runs in his five seasons in San Diego, hitting as many as 40 in a single-season.

All smiles in Beantown this offseason.

The Red Sox traded for Gonzalez, 28, seemingly right in the prime of his career and with his best baseball still in front of him. Leaving Petco Park might be just what the doctor ordered for Gonzalez, to push him over the edge for his first MVP Award in '11.  Gonzalez will be the centerpiece to an offense that all already includes the likes of Carl Crawford, 2008 AL MVP Dustin Pedroia and David 'Big Papi' Ortiz.

Since opening in 2004, Petco has been known as being a spacious pitchers park around Major League Baseball. The Fenway faithful might as well be the complete opposite, with a short right field porch and 37-foot wall in left field known as, the Green Monster.

Gonzalez is not your prototypical left-handed hitter, being know to spread the ball around the diamond. You can be sure that Gonzalez's numbers will go up in Fenway Park this season by him peppering that wall in left field.

With added protection behind him, something he never had during in time in San Diego, that might just launch Gonzalez to his first MVP Award.