Well, my posts reflecting any sort of optimistic, "it's still early" tone, haven't exactly aged all that well. Past Red Sox that were equal or worse than 10-17:fantastic that you did this - thanks!
1972: 10-17, 0.5 GB, 17%
1996: 8-19, 3 GB, 29%
2020: 9-18, 8 GB, 53% (CoVid season)
2022: 10-17, TBD, 40% (3rd wild card)
The 1972 team actually started a bit worse (9-17), but then at least went on a 6-2 run to close out the month of May. Their 85-70 record that season would project to 89 wins over a 162 game season. In last season's AL, 89 wins would have been 2 games out of the playoffs even with the 3rd wild card (Toronto won 91). In the NL, the 3rd wild card would have allowed the Reds (!!) to qualify, and the World Series winner won 88 games.
Had the 3rd wild card been in place in 1996, there would have been a 3-way tie with the Red Sox, White Sox, and Mariners vying for the 2 remaining wild card spots with 85 wins. Using the new tiebreaker rules for that season, with the Red Sox and Seattle qualifying by virtue of head-to-head records, and the Sox getting the #2 wild card slot thanks to a better intra-divisional record.
So, the optimistic tone here is that in both non-CoVid seasons the Red Sox started so poorly, they ended up back in the race by September, and would have qualified for the post-season under a format similar to that in place this year. I don't expect this optimistic note to age all that well either, as neither Yaz (8 home runs in September of 1972) nor Luis Tiant (11-3, 1.18 ERA in August/September) are walking through that dugout door.