2011 Boston Red Sox season

The 2011 Boston Red Sox season was the 111th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. Before the season, the Red Sox were favored to win the American League East and reach the World Series, with some comparing the team to the [1927 New York 2011 New York Yankees season|Yankees season|1927 New York Yankees]. With a record of 90–72, the Red Sox finished third in their division, seven games behind the Yankees.
The club led the Tampa Bay Rays by nine games in the AL wild card race on September 3. Boston's odds of reaching the postseason peaked at 99.6%, but the Red Sox lost 18 of their final 24 games. On the last day of the season, September 28, a ninth-inning Red Sox loss to the Baltimore Orioles via a blown save, coupled with an improbable late comeback from a 7–0 deficit in 12 innings by the Rays over the Yankees, made the Rays the AL wild card winners and eliminated the Red Sox from playoff contention.

Offseason

November

11/04/10-Detroit Tigers traded Brent Dlugach to Boston Red Sox.
11/07/10-3B Adrián Beltré elected to free agency.
LF Bill Hall elected to free agency.
2B Felipe López elected to free agent.
C Víctor Martínez elected to free agency.
C Jason Varitek elected to free agency.
11/08/10-Activated RHP Junichi Tazawa from the 60-day disabled list.
Activated CF Mike Cameron from the 60-day disabled list.
Activated 1B Kevin Youkilis from the 60-day disabled list.
Activated LF Jacoby Ellsbury from the 60-day disabled list.
11/12/10-Traded LHP Dustin Richardson to the Florida Marlins for LHP Andrew Miller.
11/15/10-Claimed RHP Taylor Buchholz off waivers from Toronto Blue Jays.
11/19/10-Called up Luis Exposito from Portland Sea Dogs.
Called up Stolmy Pimentel from Salem Red Sox.
Called up Óscar Tejeda from Salem Red Sox.
11/24/10-Claimed Jordan Parraz off waivers from Kansas City Royals.

December

12/03/10-2B Nate Spears assigned to Boston Red Sox.
RHP Santo Luis assigned to Boston Red Sox.
LHP Hideki Okajima elected free agency.
RHP Taylor Buchholz elected free agency.
LHP Andrew Miller elected free agency.
Signed free agent RHP Jason Bergmann.
Signed free agent RHP Brandon Duckworth.
Signed free agent 2B Drew Sutton.
12/06/10-Portland Sea Dogs traded 1B Anthony Rizzo and RHP Casey Kelly to San Antonio Missions; San Diego Padres traded 1B Adrián González to Boston Red Sox and Greenville Drive traded CF Reymond Fuentes to Fort Wayne TinCaps.
12/10/10-Signed free agent C Jason Varitek.
12/11/10-Signed free agent LF Carl Crawford.
12/16/10-Traded CF Eric Patterson to San Diego Padres.
Signed free agent LHP Andrew Miller.
Signed free agent RHP Clevelan Santeliz.
Signed free agent LHP Randy Williams.
Signed free agent LHP Rich Hill.
Signed free agent LHP Lenny DiNardo.
Signed free agent LHP Matt Albers.
12/18/10-Signed free agent RHP Dan Wheeler.
12/21/10-Designated SS Brent Dlugach for assignment.
Signed free agent RHP Bobby Jenks.
12/23/10-Outrighted Brent Dlugach to Pawtucket Red Sox.

January

1/05/11-Designated Matt Fox for assignment.
Claimed Max Ramírez off waivers from Texas Rangers.
1/06/11-Signed free agent RHP Tony Peña Jr.
1/10/11-Signed free agent LHP Hideki Okajima.
1/13/11-Released RHP Matt Fox.

2011 spring training

Fans gathered at Fenway Park on February 8, 2011, in order to kick off the Red Sox preseason by celebrating Truck Day. The first full team workout of the preseason took place on February 19. Playing other teams in the Grapefruit League the Red Sox finished with 14 wins and 19 losses.

2011 season

The Red Sox made several high-profile roster moves hoping to return to postseason success after missing the playoffs in 2010. During the offseason the Red Sox traded for first baseman Adrián González, and they followed that move up by signing star outfielder Carl Crawford.

Opening day

The Red Sox kicked off the year against the defending AL Pennant Winners, the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, on Friday, April 1.

Lineup

Source:
The Red Sox home opener was Friday, April 8, against the rival New York Yankees.

Pitching woes

On May 15, John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka were placed on the disabled list. On June 10, Matsuzaka underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery. Clay Buchholz was afflicted with what would be diagnosed as a stress fracture in his back and was also put on the disabled list on June 17, where he would remain for the rest of the season. Other pitchers including Rich Hill and Bobby Jenks spent significant time on the disabled list. The Red Sox obtained Érik Bédard from the Seattle Mariners seconds before the trading deadline, after Kyle Weiland proved ineffective. Starting pitchers John Lackey and ace Jon Lester were ineffective down the stretch, as the Red Sox crashed down to a 7-20 finish, blowing a 9-game wild card lead that they held entering September. Josh Beckett missed a start early in the month after spraining his ankle in a previous start, and was ineffective in most of his September starts after that point.

Collapse

The Red Sox became the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to have a nine-game lead in September and fail to make the playoffs that season, thanks to their 7–20 record in the final month of the regular season. In the days following this historic collapse, the front office and manager Terry Francona decided to part ways, and not exercise either of the additional year options on Francona's contract.
After the regular season ended, General Manager Theo Epstein entered talks with the Chicago Cubs to interview for the National League club's vacant General Manager position. The Cubs offered Epstein the position of President of Baseball Operations, and he accepted. After five months of negotiations, the Red Sox and Cubs agreed to the compensation the Red Sox would receive for Epstein. The Cubs acquired minor-league first baseman Jair Bogaerts from the Red Sox, and the Red Sox received pitchers Chris Carpenter and Aaron Kurcz.
Soon after the season ended, stories broke in the local media about several of Boston's starting pitchers, including Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and John Lackey, had been playing video games, eating fried chicken, and drinking beer in the clubhouse and dugout during games when they were not pitching. Jon Lester was the first to speak publicly about the allegations, and admitted to eating and drinking in the clubhouse during games, though infrequently, but denied that these actions ever took place in the dugout.

Players stats

Batting

Note: ## = Player number; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; BB = Base on balls; SO = Strikeouts; SB = Stolen bases; AVG = Batting average

##	Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
62	Lars Anderson	6	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	.000
3		38	101	17	32	6	0	2	8	4	17	4	.317
23		33	94	9	14	2	0	3	9	8	25	0	.149
13		130	506	65	129	29	7	11	56	23	104	18	.255
7		81	248	23	55	6	1	4	22	33	58	0	.222
2		158	660	119	212	46	5	32	105	52	98	39	.321
55	Joey Gathright	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	----
28		159	630	108	213	45	3	27	117	74	119	1	.338
28		10	6	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.333
36		12	19	2	3	0	0	1	5	2	3	0	.158
60		17	39	5	9	2	0	2	8	4	10	0	.231
12		88	309	40	78	14	4	6	36	23	60	1	.252
54		79	157	26	37	6	1	6	24	14	33	2	.236
56		16	37	6	8	2	0	1	3	3	9	0	.216
34		146	525	84	162	40	1	29	96	78	83	1	.309
15		159	635	102	195	37	3	21	91	86	85	26	.307
16		87	254	41	71	18	3	7	28	19	50	1	.280
39		103	358	52	84	23	3	16	56	24	119	1	.235
10		113	395	59	118	26	1	7	54	38	36	4	.299
71	Nate Spears	3	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000
44		31	54	11	17	7	0	0	7	3	13	0	.315
33		68	222	32	49	10	1	11	36	21	67	0	.221
20		120	431	68	111	32	2	17	80	68	100	3	.258
	Pitcher totals	162	21	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	13	0	.048
	Team totals	162	5710	875	1600	352	35	203	842	578	1108	102	.280

Source:

Pitching

Note: ## = Player number; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; SVO = Saves opportunities; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R= Runs; ER = Earned runs allowed; HR = Home runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; SO = Strikeouts

##	Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
91		10	2	2.61	55	4	2	5	114.0	84	37	33	8	42	80
32		4	4	4.73	56	0	0	3	64.2	62	35	34	7	31	68
48		1	0	3.26	17	0	1	1	30.1	31	11	11	0	6	17
51		2	9	3.33	70	0	1	6	73.0	46	29	27	5	24	74
23		1	2	4.03	8	8	0	0	38.0	41	22	17	3	18	38
19		13	7	2.89	30	30	0	0	193.0	146	65	62	21	52	175
64		0	0	4.05	14	0	0	0	20.0	19	9	9	3	11	17
11		6	3	3.48	14	14	0	0	82.2	76	34	32	10	31	60
61		0	0	6.10	11	0	1	1	10.1	12	7	7	1	8	6
53		0	0	0.00	9	0	0	0	8.0	3	0	0	0	3	12
68		0	0	6.75	8	0	0	0	4.0	4	3	3	0	3	2
52		2	2	6.32	19	0	0	2	15.2	22	12	11	1	13	17
41		12	12	6.41	28	28	0	0	160.0	203	119	114	20	56	108
31		15	9	3.47	31	31	0	0	191.2	166	77	74	20	75	182
18		3	3	5.30	8	7	0	0	37.1	32	24	22	4	23	26
54	Darnell McDonald	0	0	18.00	1	0	0	0	1.0	1	2	2	0	2	0
30		6	3	5.54	17	12	0	0	65.0	77	43	40	8	41	50
56	Trever Miller	0	0	0.00	3	0	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	1
46		1	1	3.62	36	0	0	0	32.1	30	15	13	4	11	31
37		1	0	4.32	7	0	0	0	8.1	7	4	4	0	5	6
58		4	1	2.94	63	0	31	34	64.1	50	22	21	3	10	87
59		0	0	16.20	4	0	0	0	1.2	2	3	3	0	2	1
63	Junichi Tazawa	0	0	6.00	3	0	0	0	3.0	3	2	2	1	1	4
49		7	8	5.12	33	23	0	0	154.2	163	110	88	25	47	93
70		0	3	7.66	7	5	0	0	24.2	29	22	21	5	12	13
35		2	2	4.38	47	0	0	0	49.1	47	24	24	7	8	39
43		0	1	6.48	7	0	0	0	8.1	10	6	6	0	5	6
	Team totals	90	72	4.20	162	162	36	52	1457.1	1366	737	680	156	540	1213

Source:

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Josh Beckett, reserve P
Jacoby Ellsbury, reserve OF
Adrián González, starting 1B
Jon Lester, reserve P
David Ortiz, starting DH
Kevin Youkilis, reserve 3B

Farm system

Source:

Amateur draft

Boston's selections during the first five rounds of the 2011 MLB draft were as follows:

Round	Pick	Player	Pos.	School
1	19	Matt Barnes	P
1	26	Blake Swihart	C
1	36	Henry Owens	P
1	40	Jackie Bradley Jr.	OF
2	81	Williams Jerez	P
3	111	Jordan Weems	C
4	142	Noé Ramirez	P
5	172	Mookie Betts	SS

Additionally, the team selected Travis Shaw in the 9th round, Daniel Gossett in the 16th round, and Mac Williamson in the 46th round.
Each of the above listed draftees went on to play in MLB, with Barnes being the last to leave the Red Sox organization, in January 2023.