Red Sox Finish Off The A's With A Sweep, And Have Very Quietly Won 8 Of Their Last 12 Games
If we could all just have a moment of silence for Dallas Braden, who flew all the way from California to watch this series……………………………..thank you.
After dropping a couple to the Rays and splitting a four-gamer with the Tigers, the Red Sox capped off their 10-game (which became a 9-game) homestand with a three-game set against the Oakland A’s. Last year’s Wild Card runner-ups had just been swept over the weekend by the Blue Jays, so they weren’t exactly coming into Fenway hot. Make that back-to-back sweeps for the green and gold, which you hate to see, who have now lost six straight to slip into the basement of the AL West. Damn shame.
Chugging along without Nathan Eovaldi, the Red Sox have essentially filled the void in their rotation with a bullpen game, using Hector Velazquez as an opener. Of course, the Red Sox bullpen was nice and rested after Rick Porcello tossed eight shutout innings the night before. Velazquez was one of six Red Sox pitchers deployed by Alex Cora on Wednesday, the first five combining to hold Oakland to just one run before Tyler Thornburg came on and gave up some rockets to allow a pair of runs to score. Marcus Walden was actually the star of this one, pitching more innings than Velazquez, while holding Oakland to just one hit over three scoreless frames.
It was another big day for the offense, who dropped seven runs on nine hits, two of which left the yard. Mitch Moreland launched his team-leading ninth homer to dead center off of Oakland starter Mike Fiers and Christian Vazquez crushed a solo homer over everything in left in the eighth inning just to stay in shape.
Don’t look now, but the Red Sox have won eight out of their last 12 games. I know, it doesn’t feel like it. I’m right there with you. I go back to yesterday’s point about the consistency. Just when it feels like they’re about to get hot and take off, they lose a couple and there goes all momentum. They’ve been a jetliner that can’t get off the runway. Perhaps that’s changing as a result of starting pitchers finally beginning to carry their weight, and guys like Mookie Betts tearing the cover off the ball for the last two weeks. Those two factors were not a thing when the Red Sox were at their worst. They are now, and the Red Sox are winning ballgames because of it.
The final destination on the road to first place won’t be reached overnight; that much we know. The Red Sox dug themselves quite the hole in April, but the good news is that it’s a brand new month and things began to turn before it was time to flip the calendar. There’s still plenty of time left for this team to regain their rightful position atop the American League East. And they will. Tick tock.
Boston now heads to Chicago for a four-game series with the Chicago White Sox, who are about what you’d expect them to be. They’ve got a handful of exciting, young players that are well worth the price of admission to watch, but that hasn’t yet been reflected in the ol’ winning percentage, as they sit in fourth place in arguably the worst division in baseball. The White Sox haven’t named a starter for Thursday yet, but it’s David Price for Boston who has a 2.00 ERA over his last three starts with 24 strikeouts in 18 innings.
Final score: Red Sox 7, A’s 3