It's April 6. The Red Sox have played exactly four games. Meaning there are still 158 games to be played -- that's 97.5 percent of the baseball season. But. But, after Tuesday night's loss in Cleveland, the Red Sox have lost those four games, which is kind of a problem. Does it mean their 2011 season may already be over?
↵Consider: no team that has started 0-4 has ever gone on to win the World Series; just one team -- the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals -- even managed to reach the World Series after starting 0-4. Wait, it gets worse: Since 1995, only two out of 128 playoff teams reached the postseason after an 0-4 start -- the 1999 Arizona Diamondbacks and 1995 Cincinnati Reds.
↵But of course, as Rob Neyer points out, the Yankees opened the 1998 season with a 1-4 record, and then went on to win 114 games. So, hope is not dead. Not completely, anyways.