Boston Red Sox Power Rankings - 2013
| Power Ranking | ||||
| WEEK | RECORD | RANK | COMMENT | |
| Week 27 | 97-65 | 1 | The Red Sox finished with 97 wins, their highest total since 2007. They finished the season first in run differential, but most importantly, they were able to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The road to the World Series goes through Fenway. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 26 | 95-62 | 1 | With their first division championship since 2007 wrapped up, the Red Sox are looking forward to the playoffs -- but make no mistake about it: there's plenty left to do. Sorting out the middle of their bullpen, making seriously difficult decisions about their rotation and picking and choosing between a plethora of attractive bench pieces are the main priorities. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 25 | 92-59 | 1 | With their sweep of the Yankees this past weekend, the Red Sox earned their 92nd win of the year in their 151st game. It's the Red Sox's fewest games to 92 wins since the 1950 team did it in 151 games. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 24 | 87-58 | 1 | In spite of lingering injury issues with Jacoby Ellsbury, it would be a gross understatement to say the past week was a good one for the the Red Sox. Their offense exploded, scoring 59 runs in six games, and they took the series from the Tigers and Yankees, while the Rays fell 7.5 games back in the division. A series win in Tampa this week should all but sew up the division. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 23 | 82-56 | 3 | Jon Lester has allowed only three home runs in eight starts (52.2 innings) since the All-Star break. -- ESPN.com | |
| Week 22 | 77-55 | 6 | The Red Sox wrapped up a successful West Coast swing by winning series from the defending World Series champion Giants and the Dodgers (the hottest team in baseball) and finished the trip 4-2. Key to their success: starting pitching. Sox starters combined for a 1.12 ERA in 48.1 innings pitched. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 21 | 73-53 | 5 | Ryan Dempster's plunking of Alex Rodriguez was pretty dumb. Combined with his poor performance, it helped secure Boston's third series loss in a row and stretched the bullpen out just in time for a 7-hour flight to San Francisco so they could play the Giants at 10 p.m. ET. Not wise. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 20 | 71-49 | 4 | After taking a little while to lock in, Stephen Drew has more than found his footing since June 11, putting together an impressive .324/.420/.541 batting line. Also hot? Jacoby Ellsbury, who has clubbed five of his seven home runs over that same period of time. Not hot? Dustin Pedroia, who's hitting .200/.288/.282. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 19 | 68-45 | 1 | In Jose Iglesias' last 18 at-bats with the the Red Sox, he had a batting line of .167/.167/.167. That and some high-risk lottery ticket A-ball prospects is all it cost Boston to rope in Jake Peavy at the trade deadline. Peavy, by the way, is in the midst of posting the second-best BB/9 of his career and his best K/9 since 2009. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 18 | 63-43 | 4 | Since going on a tear earlier in the season, Jose Iglesias has come crashing to earth this month, posting a putrid .211/.256/.224 mark. His .013 ISO (Isolated Power) is ambitiously bad. While there isn't much in the way of an upgrade available on the trade market, the Red Sox may call up Xander Bogaerts sooner than thought, as he's posted a solid .266/.374/.475 mark in 163 PAs at Triple-A Pawtucket. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 17 | 60-40 | 2 | This week's stretch could determine a lot for the Red Sox, who are desperately trying to gain some distance on the second-place Rays. A series win could give them a nice cushion heading into the trade deadline; a series loss would put them in second place after having spent much of the season in first. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 16 | 58-39 | 2 | Heading into the All-Star break, the Red Sox find themselves with the best record in the American League. Supplementing the bullpen with the acquisition of Matt Thornton will certainly help, but don't be surprised to see them make another move before the deadline. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 15 | 54-36 | 1 | For folks wondering when Jacoby Ellsbury would finally hit for power again: In the past two weeks he's posted a meaty .379/.429/.490 stat line with three doubles and, yes, finally a home run. The Red Sox will need him to stay hot as they roll through Seattle before wrapping up the first half with a series against the formidable Oakland A's. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 14 | 50-34 | 3 | For only the fourth time in franchise history, the Red Sox have won 50 games before the start of July. Last season, they didn't win their 50th game until July 28. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 13 | 45-33 | 2 | With five homers and a .351 average in June, Mike Carp is a big reason the Red Sox are holding onto first in the AL East. -- ESPN.com | |
| Week 12 | 42-29 | 2 | Jon Lester is winless in his past six starts, and during that span he's compiled a 7.20 ERA. -- ESPN.com | |
| Week 11 | 39-25 | 2 | The Red Sox's June schedule will go a long way toward telling us whether this team is for real. Thus far the Red Sox look very "for real," taking series from the Yankees, Rangers and Angels. This week, they face the Rays and Orioles. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 10 | 35-23 | 4 | Clay Buchholz, who leads the majors with a 1.62 ERA, has given up only two home runs in 11 starts and has a .190 batting average against. -- ESPN.com | |
| Week 9 | 31-20 | 6 | After a sputtering start to the month, the Red Sox have turned things around in a big way, going 9-3 since May 15. The Sox will wrap up the month with their first interleague series of the year against Philadelphia this week. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 8 | 27-17 | 5 | After a week of struggling to hit with runners in scoring position, the Red Sox offense finally snapped out of its funk, running off five wins in a row to end the week. They're now only a half-game out of the catbird seat in the AL East. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 7 | 22-16 | 5 | After steamrolling through the month of April, the Red Sox have cooled off considerably, having lost eight of their past 10 games. Central to their struggles has been their offense, which has struggled to hit with runners in scoring position. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 6 | 20-11 | 1 | Who knows if Clay Buchholz has been throwing a spitball. All that's certain is that he's putting up some impressive numbers (6-0 with a 1.01 ERA and a .178 batting average against in his first six starts of the season). -- ESPN.com | |
| Week 5 | 18-7 | 3 | The Red Sox capped off an impressive 7-3 stretch by sweeping the struggling Astros this past weekend. The difficulty level will rise significantly this week, however as the Red Sox begin a six-game road trip that'll take them to Toronto and Texas. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 4 | 12-6 | 3 | Amidst an incredibly challenging week for obvious reasons, the Red Sox responded about as well as anyone could have hoped for, going 6-0 on the week before dropping both games in the day/night doubleheader Sunday against the Royals. More importantly, they gave Bostonians something to smile about again. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 3 | 7-4 | 11 | To be successful in 2013, the Red Sox need Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz to bounce back and have productive seasons. So far, they've done that and more, as the two have combined to post a dominant 1.03 ERA in 33 innings pitched. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 2 | 4-2 | 12 | At 4-2, the Red Sox are off to their best start since 2006, in large part because of great pitching and defense. The Red Sox have surrendered an AL-low 19 runs so far and are second in all of baseball in run differential (plus-17). -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |
| Week 1 | 0-0 | 15 | After a positive spring where the rotation posted an overall 2.13 ERA, the Red Sox hope that success carries over when they open the season against the Yankees before traveling north for their first real test of the season -- against the Blue Jays. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |