Starr’s 7 Questions: Will the Red Sox still be winners in their new City Connect uniforms?

It s been a while since I posed selected questions Here are seven to carry us into the weekend Will the Red Sox have as much success in their new City Connect uniforms When the Red Sox launched MLB s City Connect uniforms on April they had no idea their yellow-and-blue Boston Marathon-inspired ensembles would become such a hit both figuratively and literally They have a - all-time record when they take the Red out of their Sox including - since the start of the season When it came time for their second City Connect design the Red Sox phased out their navy road uniforms in order to keep the sunshine-y firstborns in the rotation Leaked images of the new City Connect uniforms as well as a teaser posted by the Red Sox suggest a Green Monster theme Hopefully the new ensembles will unleash the beast inside these Red Sox Is there any real rivalry between the Red Sox and Braves The inaugural Rivalry Weekend begins Friday around Major League Baseball Specific of the series are guaranteed must-see TV such as Juan Soto s first time facing the Yankees after spurning them for their New York rival Mets during the offseason and the formerly-of-Oakland-now-Sacramento-and-eventually-Las-Vegas Athletics heading back to the Bay Area to play the San Francisco Giants Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers hosting the Angels will seemingly just be another exercise in torment for his former band but you never know The Anaheim club is - all-time against their Los Angeles rivals Terry Francona whose retirement lasted exactly one season will manage the Cincinnati Reds as they host the Cleveland Guardians whom he helmed for a very flourishing seasons Other matchups are a bit of a stretch While the Yankees have their hands full trying to contend with the scorching Mets Boston will host the Atlanta Braves who were not only Boston s original ball club dating to the s but first known as the Boston Red Stockings The Braves however left Boston after the season In terms of recency bias the Brewers would have been a more fitting so-called rival as the Braves abandoned Milwaukee more in recent times after the season Chris Sale will start the opener for the Braves and Alex Verdugo who signed a minor-league deal with the Braves and was added to their operational roster last month will be with the visitors They ve both faced their former club already though so their presence doesn t do much to add fuel to any so-called rivalry between Boston s erstwhile neighbors Then again Red Sox versus Yankees the ultimate rivalry deserves to stand out from the crowd Are the Red Sox s one-run losses worse than the blowouts On to decidedly less-fun topics As of Thursday night s series finale in Detroit a second consecutive Tigers walk-off to clinch a sweep the Red Sox are - in one-run games They have eight comeback wins but are - in walk-offs and have blown leads Their longest winning streak was five games between April - Even the best teams will occasionally get blown out but that s not the situation in which this Red Sox company finds itself They re a talented group that for a combination of reasons is losing a lot of close games How long can the Red Sox front office afford to wait to right the ship It s only May It s a long season Lots of games left I hear you But games in May count just the same as those in late September and the Red Sox have been losing far too a multitude of winnable games Much like a Nancy Meyers movie something s gotta give And soon How long can the Red Sox keep Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony down Craig Breslow s point about wanting the top prospects to be where they can get consistent playing time makes sense but only to a certain extent And as Trevor Story strikes out at a clip in May and the Red Sox keep falling to or below it gets more arduous to understand keeping Mayer down The Red Sox spent money in free agency They traded a bundle of minor league talent including their top catching prospect in a massive bundle for Garrett Crochet and inked him and Kristian Campbell to long-term extensions The bridge years are supposed to be in the rearview mirror What s the Red Sox equivalent of Jayson Tatum s injury It was utterly heartbreaking watching Jayson Tatum lay on the court and leave Encounter earlier this week with what we now know to be a ruptured right Achilles tendon Though he had surgery the following day and is expected to make a full recovery there s no guarantee he ll ever be the same athlete again Thinking back to selected of the worst injuries in Red Sox history a scant comparisons came to mind Tony Conigliaro was never the same again after that horrific hit-by-pitch It was the beginning of the rest of a life filled with tragedy Conigliaro s injury came four years into his big-league career though There remains the eternal question of what could ve been both for him and the Red Sox Dustin Pedroia meanwhile was already a seasoned veteran with a pair of World Series rings when his career was cut short He wasn t able to retire on his own terms but he had accomplished an immensely impressive amount by the time he got hurt From a career standpoint Tatum falls somewhere in between He s eight years into his NBA career and became a champion last year but he also just turned on March And the good news is that the rest of his story remains unwritten Hopefully it goes happily ever after Can the Celtics force Tournament How could anything else be Question No this week