Red Sox haven't allowed injuries to stop their early roll

The Red Sox just finished a 4-2 road trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and they come home to start a six-game homestand with a record of 14-12, good for third place in the American League. With the injuries they’ve suffered, though, in the outfield and infield and to their starting rotation, even they must wonder how they’re not already in last place again -- wonder if everything they’ve done over the first month of the season has involved some elaborate magic trick by them and by their manager, Alex Cora.

But the big reason they are where they are in the standings is because of the way they’ve continued to pitch. Because that isn’t magic, it’s quite real.

The 1.73 ERA from their starting pitchers, led right now by Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck, is the lowest for any team through 25 games since the 1968 Mets (1.69). It is also lowest the Red Sox have had at this point in the season in more than 100 years.

It’s been well-documented that the fans in New England are frustrated by the lack of a free-agent splash in the past couple of years, and that expectations were low entering the year. It feels as if 2018, when we saw perhaps the greatest Red Sox season of them all, is much further away than six years. Mookie Betts is long gone. No one has any idea if the way the Red Sox have played to here is sustainable, considering how shorthanded they are. But they have played hard. And they have pitched.

In so many ways, the biggest surprise of the baseball season -- just because of everything they’ve had to overcome -- is Cora’s team. It’s not the way the Astros have fallen off, not the Guardians still having more wins than anybody else or the way the Royals have shown up in the early going. It is the Red Sox, as they somehow have their heads above water after the first month of a season when they could easily have taken a nosedive

Think about it another way: The Yankees have been a pretty good story themselves, without question. But the Red Sox came into the weekend only three games behind them. As the legendary Red Sox radio play-by-play man and Hall of Famer Joe Castiglione would say, “Can you believe it?”

“Like I said before, we’re going to keep going. That’s where we are. We’re going to pitch. We will pitch,” Cora said the other day.

Then the Red Sox manager added this: “We have a good game plan. They throw the thing over the plate with good stuff and it moves. We’re going to keep working. Like I said, it’s hard [with pitchers out], I get it. But we have to continue. Nobody is going to feel sorry for the Red Sox.”

Garrett Whitlock is on the injured list with an oblique injury. Nick Pivetta, who had been terrific at the start of the season, is on his way back from the IL after a flexor strain. Lucas Giolito, their big offseason pitching acquisition, is gone for the year because of elbow surgery. Brayan Bello, arguably their ace, just went on the IL. Lately it seems as if their act is TBD: To be Determined. Cooper Criswell, who wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Cora’s rotation, gave his team five huge shutout innings on Wednesday night as the Sox got the middle game of a three-game series.

Rafael Devers, who is only indispensable to the Red Sox, has missed 11 games with various injuries. Tyler O'Neill, who had been their most dangerous hitter along with Connor Wong while Devers waited to find his form (six hits in the past two games of the Cleveland series), has only played 17 of 26 games, mostly because of a collision with Devers in short left field.

Of course, Trevor Story, who was supposed to be their shortstop, was lost for the season after just eight games with a catastrophic shoulder injury.

Vaughn Grissom, the kid they got from the Braves in the Chris Sale trade who was going to play second base, hasn’t yet played an official game because of a Spring Training hamstring injury. Triston Casas, the first baseman, could be gone for two months because of a cracked left rib. There have been games this season when the Red Sox didn’t have anybody available who they thought was going to be a regular at first, second, short or third.

Bobby Dalbec, who’s replaced Casas at first, was hitting .077 through Thursday’s game against the Guardians. Ceddanne Rafaela, the kid who was supposed to play center field, is now the regular shortstop, even though he was hitting .163 after Thursday.

Again: You look at the standings in light of the injuries they’ve had to work through and around, look at who’s in the IL, and you really can’t believe your eyes. A lot of teams have had to overcome things this season. No team in baseball has had to overcome more than the Red Sox have. Now they try to come home against the Cubs and Giants and improve a 3-7 record at Fenway (against 11-5 on the road).

Without question, you wonder how it can last. For now, though? The Sox really are third in the East, three behind the second-place Yankees, two games over .500. Can you believe it?