.500 Has Never Looked so Good!
Is it possible that the Red Sox have actually figured it out?
How Sweep It Is!
Coming off a nine-game road winning streak to end the first half, it is safe to assume that the feelings around Red Sox Nation ran the gamut from, “2026 World Series Champs, man!” to, “Oh great! This team can’t even lose right...they just cost themselves the number one pick in the draft.”
After running through a rather weak road trip that included the Mets, Angels, and a Major League team that calls themselves the White Sox, but has looked nothing like the franchise that most Southsiders have come to know and loathe over the last decade, the nine-game winning streak gave the appearance that the Sox simply caught a bunch of teams that already had their bags packed and their minds on Cancun, rather than on playing professional baseball.
Coming out of the All-Star break, some solid teams are waiting for them, including the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays, and many thought this would be the time for the Sox to actually put John Henry’s money where Sam Kennedy’s mouth was.
In a shocking turn of events, the hometown team actually kept that winning streak going, steamrolling the Rays 10-0 in the first game of the day-night doubleheader before playing another complete brand of baseball to take the nightcap, 5-3.
It Always Comes in Threes
In the opener, Jake Bennett kept up his winning ways, allowing only one hit and one walk through six lightning innings. Bennett had the Rays looking like they were three-year-old kids in the backyard learning to hit off their father’s pitching, swinging at every pitch that came their way and not caring where it went. He threw only 65 pitches in his six innings of work and struck out just three because the Rays never let him throw much more than three pitches per at-bat.
On the offensive side, it was just the opposite for the Red Sox. Everyone in the lineup was putting the ball in play and hitting it hard. Durbin, Yoshida, and Narváez all had three hits apiece, and if you can believe it, Yoshida actually had Dave O’Brien on cycle watch somewhere around the fourth inning! The team pounded out 15 hits, and incredibly, four of them went for extra bases. Yoshida and Rafaela each doubled, while the Massa Man also connected for a homer, along with Narváez.
To add insult to the Rays’ injury, Jarren Duran actually produced as well. Deciding that it was probably better to take out some of his frustrations on the opponent for a change instead of the fans, he drove in three runs and even recorded a hit of his own.
Green Means Go
In the nightcap, it looked like the glass slipper was about to break for Cinderella when the Rays jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first against the Worcester flavor-of-the-month pitcher, Eduardo Rivera.
But the “Venezuelan connection” clad in their City Connect Green, wasn’t about to let that happen. Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras (fresh off his little suspension) connected for back-to-back jacks off Mason “Don’t Call Me Engelbert Humperdinck” Englert to give the Sox a 3-2 lead that the bullpen would not relinquish.
The Red Sox continued their long-ball approach now that Driveline has been banished, and Abreu delivered his second homer of the night. And get this, his second against a right-handed pitcher. It appears he can actually hit pitchers who don’t throw with their left hand this year.
From there, the Boston bullpen took over, throwing 6.2 scoreless innings. Even Greg Weissert managed to put up a goose egg, although he did surrender a pair of hits during his time on the mound. Moran, Guerrero, Whitlock, Slaten, and Chapman combined to strike out five Rays, allow only two hits, and somehow managed not to blow the game.
11 in a Row...Is It Really Possible?
So now I guess it’s time to ask the big Clint Eastwood question: “Do you feel lucky?”
Is this team for real?
Is it possible that all they needed to do was remove some of the players they thought had talent and replace them with some hard-nosed baseball players who understand what it takes to play winning baseball and, more importantly, actually know how to do it once they’re on the field?
Two more games remain against the Rays this weekend, and dare I say it, the Red Sox appear to have the edge in the starting pitching matchups; at least on Sunday.
Boston should come out of this series no worse than .500 while having won its fourth straight series. If that happens and, incredibly, they continue to hold on to the final Wild Card spot, does Craig Breslow and the front office finally decide to invest some thought into improving this team for a stretch run?
I know we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Let’s just sit back and enjoy a weekend where the Sox are at home and hopefully show us that they aren’t quite as bad as that historically awful first two months of the season suggested. Maybe, just maybe, they’re finally becoming a team that can actually distract us from wondering when all the smoke from the Canadian forest fires is finally going to leave us alone.
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