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Baseball is a numbers game. It has always been a numbers game.
Number of games played, homers hit, runs driven in, strikeouts, walks. Wins and losses. Averages and percentages. Single-season and career statistics. Record highs and personal worsts.
That’s not even getting into the advanced metrics of the modern era.
One stat alone won’t tell the full story. In 2023, the Red Sox finished 78-84, in last place for the third time in four seasons. But their record belies how great they were at times, on both individual and collective levels.
To truly understand this team, why they flourished, faltered, and how they ultimately failed, one must examine the numbers behind the numbers. So, one last time before the calendar page mercifully flips to a new year and clean slate, here are the 2023 Red Sox by the numbers:
Here’s an odd bit of trivia: this was the ninth season in which the Red Sox won exactly 78 games, but only the sixth time they also finished with exactly 84 losses. The 1905, 1911, and 1935 teams each compiled 78 wins, but only 74 or 75 losses, making them three winning seasons.
Also hidden within their record were some unfortunate firsts. Among them, an early September contest which became the first 9-inning loss in franchise history in which the Red Sox collected at least 21 hits.
For the third year running, the Red Sox led all Major League teams in doubles (339). Excluding the shortened 2020 season, that streak goes back to 2018. They were second in the game in batting average on balls in play (BABIP), and ranked sixth in batting average (.258) and ninth in slugging percentage (.424). They were fourth in hits (1,437), 11th in runs (772) and RBI (734), but a lack of power left them 18th in homers (182). They were a respectable 13th in strikeouts (1,372), but didn’t draw nearly enough walks (24th, 486), and left 1,117 men on base, 12th-most in the Majors.
What really did them in, though, was starting pitching or lack thereof. With an all-too-familiar dearth of durability in the rotation, 17 different pitchers cobbled together starts for Boston in 2023. Quality starts – at least six innings, no more than three earned runs – were few and far between. There were 47 of them this year, an improvement of exactly one over last year’s mark. In fact, the last four seasons have yielded the club’s lowest quality-start counts of the Live Ball Era, which began in 1920.
However, Kutter Crawford made franchise history as the first pitcher to record as many as four games of at least six innings pitched and one hit allowed in a single season. He and National League Cy Young winner Blake Snell led the Majors with four such outings apiece.
Speaking of Cy Young awards, relievers aren’t typically in the conversation – the last bullpen arm to take home the prestigious pitching accolade was Eric Gagne with the Dodgers in ‘03 – but Chris Martin received a fifth-place vote this year, and finished 12th overall for AL Cy Young. He posted a 1.05 ERA over 55 appearances for Boston this season, and consistently carried the later inning workload for almost the entire season.
Justin Turner spent his age-38 season doing things the David Ortiz way. He joined Ortiz and Bob Johnson as the only Red Sox players to drive in 96 or more runs in a single season at 38 or older.
And how many rookie-eligible players have drawn 70 or more walks in a single season? Triston Casas just became the sixth in franchise history. He did so in 132 games, second only to Billy Goodman’s 1948 season, when he walked 74 times in 127 contests. Casas also became the fifth Red Sox rookie under 24 years old to homer at least 24 times in a single season, and the first since Nomar Garciaparra in 1997.
Thanks to a replenished farm system, when the Red Sox needed reinforcements, they were able to call up some high-caliber talent. Eight players made their major league debuts in the following order: Masataka Yoshida, Enmanuel Valdez, Chris Murphy, Joe Jacques, David Hamilton, Brandon Walter, Wilyer Abreu, and Ceddanne Rafaela.
The farm system, meanwhile, improved to No. 5 in Baseball America’s organizational rankings, and No. 2 in FanGraphs’.
In May, Kenley Jansen became the seventh pitcher in MLB history to convert 400 saves. Two weeks later, former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel joined him in the club. Oddly enough, both picked up No. 400 in Atlanta, against a team they both played for previously.
Devers reached and promptly blew past 150 career home runs, 200 career doubles, and 500 career RBI. With his 400th career extra-base hit in mid-September, he became the first player in franchise history to reach the mark before turning 27. (Ted Williams would’ve done it, if not for his three years of military service in World War II.)
Adam Duvall passed the 400 career runs and 500 career RBI marks, and Justin Turner reached 300 doubles. Before getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kiké Hernández picked up career home run No. 100.
Last, but certainly not least, the bottom line.
Last December, Chaim Bloom gave Masataka Yoshida a five-year contract for $90 million, the largest ever for a Japanese position player. Then, in January, Devers signed a franchise-record 10-year contract extension worth $313.5 million, far surpassing the previous record: the seven-year, $217M they gave David Price in 2015.
However, overall spending headed in the opposite direction. After finishing in last place with a payroll over the Competitive Balance Threshold in 2022, the Red Sox reset their penalties this year. Despite vocal pleas from their players to bring in reinforcements before the midsummer trade deadline, the brass stood pat. According to Spotrac, Boston finished the season with just under $222.5 million in luxury tax spending, leaving over $10 million in space. That put them 12th in the league in spending.
While the Red Sox came under fire for scrimping, it’s worth pointing out that the three top spenders this year, the Mets ($374.6M), Yankees ($296.3M), and Padres ($291.2M), all missed the postseason, too.
Administrators at the Croft School, struggling after allegations of financial fraud, haven’t been able to find a buyer for its Boston locations, which will now close at the end of the school year, parents were told Friday.
Millions of dollars were raised by families and community members to keep the private school open for a few more months while Croft School administrators scrambled to find a buyer. But in Friday’s email, the chief restructuring officer and independent sale advisor said that two parties expressed interest but they ultimately had to pivot toward winding operations down.
“To be clear, the 2025-2026 school year will be completed based on the availability of parent funding. However, without a viable timetable for a transaction, we are faced with this difficult decision,” the email said.
About 350 students had attended the Croft School’s three campuses, two in Boston and one in Providence. Regular tuition starts at $31,000, according to the website.
Millions were raised to keep the private school open for a few more months but the Croft School is looking for a buyer as a long-term fix to its financial problems.
More than 60 families unenrolled from the South End campus over the weekend, the email said.
News of the debt crisis surprised parents in March, when the school’s board revealed in a letter that founding Executive Director Scott Given admitted to fabricating a letter of credit regarding a possible expansion and keeping two sets of books, overstating the school’s revenue while understating its expenses.
The discovery that the school was more than $13 million in debt came after police were alerted to possible fraud. The school has said it’s cooperating with multiple investigations involving Given, who has been suspended.
The private school, with two locations in Boston and one in Providence, requires $5 million to stay open for the rest of the schoolyear.
Given has been sued by at least one Boston parent, accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme. His legal team has said he has no comment.
Parents rallied to save the school, raising enough funds to keep classes going.
The officials in charge of the sale noted “how hard many of you worked to maintain The Croft School as you know it,” but added that the “difficult circumstances, uncertain financials and condensed timeframe made this a trying environment for purchasers to timely make a binding offer for the schools.”
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Baseball is back and finding what channel your favorite team is playing on has become a little bit more confusing since MLB announced plans to produce and distribute broadcasts for nearly a third of the league.
We’re here to help. Here’s everything you need to know Friday as the Tampa Bay Rays visit the Boston Red Sox.
See USA TODAY’s sortable MLB schedule to filter by team or division.
First pitch between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. (ET) on Friday, May 8.
All times Eastern and accurate as of Friday, May 8, 2026, at 6:33 a.m.
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New England Patriots
FOXBOROUGH – When Caleb Lomu boarded his flight to Boston Thursday morning, he knew he was in for a friendly dose of embarrassment.
His uncle, Curtis Tanner, is an American Airlines pilot. Tanner texted Lomu’s mother a day or two before asking what flight the Patriots first-round pick had booked for his introductory press conference at Gillette Stadium.
It happened to be the same red-eye flight that Tanner had been switched to.
“He’s the type of uncle to where he’s going to embarrass you a little bit,” Lomu said. “I knew it was coming, so my family told me to film it.”
“I got on the plane and I was kind of waiting, and then of course he got on the intercom and started talking. I thought he was just going to be talking about me, but he brought me up to the front. Proud uncle, is what he was saying.”
Getting a ride to the airport from a family member is one thing. Having an uncle fly you from Massachusetts for the beginning of a lifelong NFL dream is another.
But, that’s just how Lomu’s luck worked out on this sunny Thursday. He began the day in Arizona and found himself shaking hands with Robert Kraft in Foxborough a few hours later.
“How great is that karma?” Kraft asked.
Lomu’s wife, Kitty, predicted the Patriots would be the team to draft him.
She printed out a US map with the locations of all 32 NFL franchises ahead of the NFL draft.
“We just hung that up, put it on the wall, and then everyone in the family could just get a little sticky note and put their guesses of where I was going to go,” Lomu said. “It’s a funny story, actually, my wife actually chose New England.”
“She was the only one who put her name on the Patriots, so that was a sign right there where I was going to go,” he added. “I’m LDS and when you get your mission call, you do the same thing, you have the whole map and you choose where you think the person is going to go. So, it’s kind of the same thought process behind that.”
Kitty was the first one to recognize the Massachusetts number when Lomu got the call from the Patriots on draft night.
The Patriots traded up to pick Lomu, a 6-foot-6, 304-pound offensive tackle, with the 28th overall pick in the first-round of last month’s NFL Draft. He primarily played left tackle at Utah, but has experience on both sides of the line.
“I just think of myself as a tackle in general, left or right side, just happened to play left in college and that’s where I got comfortable playing two out of those three years at Utah. My first year there, I was kind of a swing tackle so now I feel comfortable at left but have also been working at right these last couple of months. I feel just as good on the right side as well, so either tackle position I’m happy to play.”
The Patriots took left-tackle Will Campbell in the first round last year. Campbell had an up-and-down year featuring a strong start and a difficult finish after he came back from an MCL sprain that sidelined him for a few weeks.
Morgan Moses started every single game for the Patriots at right-tackle last season. He turned 35 in March, and the Patriots will want to get younger at that position eventually.
Lomu played with another first-round tackle, Browns rookie Specncer Fano, at Utah and the Utes kept Lomu on the left side.
The Patriots could use depth at both tackle spots, and the Patriots have praised Lomu for his versatility. He has the size, athleticism, and upside to play anywhere on the line, Patriots executive vice resident of player personnel Eliot Wolf said the night New England made the pick.
Protecting Drake Maye continues to be a priority for the Patriots, and it remains to be seen exactly where Lomu fits into that plan.
Two weeks after the draft, Lomu is in Massachusetts and ready to get to work. The time just flew by, he said.
“As soon as I got that call, the whole surreal feeling of draft night and all that, it didn’t really sink in until the next morning when I woke up and really processed it” Lomu said. “That whole night was kind of a blur. Had all the excitement and emotions of that night and then woke up the next morning and it really settled in that I was a Patriot.
“It hit me all at once. From that moment to now, it’s all been excitement. I’m just ready to get here, finally be here, and meet all the great people, coaches, and players.”
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