Chris Sale, Kyle Schwarber Finally Joined The Red Sox As Boston Swept The Fuck Out Of The Orioles

Advertisement

30-5. That's the aggregate score from this three game stand against the Baltimore Orioles. Now, the Orioles are terrible, but that's the point. The Red Sox should be thumping bad teams. They should be sweeping mediocre teams. That hasn't been the case for a month now, so pardon me if I'm happy this team finally started to resemble the team we all fell in love with back in April. 

I also find it extremely important to harp on Sale and Schwarber finally suiting up considering how many diapers were soiled after the trade deadline. You would've thought Chaim traded away Rafael Devers the way people were reacting. Schwarber was one of the best bats on the market - I still argue the best available - and it certainly felt different with him hitting out of the six-hole today. While the Sox offense hasn't been holding the team back much this season, the only real complaint was that it felt a bit top heavy. That Devers, Xander and J.D. had to carry the load every single night. When Verdugo was hitting eighth today it genuinely felt like the heart of the order was constantly on deck. Truth be told, they let the Orioles off the hook by only plating six.

Schwarber didn't set the world on fire, but he didn't have to. In two games he reached base four times with two walks and two doubles, he scored 75% of the time he reached base. Considering the lengthy layoff he had recovering from injury, I'll very much take that for his first series with the Sox. He's got plenty of time to figure out first base or left field, that part I'm less worried about. Keep his bat in the lineup and good things will continue to happen. 

As jacked up as I was to see Schwarber finally make his debut, the weekend was about one man and one man only. Two years and one day since his last big league start, Chris Sale looked very much like the guy we all remember. Five innings, eight punch outs, no walks, two earned. That'll play. And with that, the rotation looks drastically different than it did a month ago. Martin Perez and Garrett Richards have accepted their roles in the bullpen, Eduardo Rodriguez appears to have regained his 2019 form over his last nine starts, Nathan Eovaldi was literally an All Star this year, Nick Pivetta and Tanner Houck are now your four and five instead of top of the rotation guys, that's a group I'll roll with every single day. Between Sale, Eddie and Pivetta the Red Sox starters allowed three earned runs over 17 innings this series. Again, it's the Orioles, but for how dejected everyone seemed a week ago this team very much looked like it got the shot in the arm it desperately needed. 

There's no more, "Well we don't know how Sale's gonna look once he's back." We do know. He looked the same. Slider was flat the first couple of batters, then the heavy sweeper came out to play. He hit 96 a few times, mostly lived 92-94. There's no more, "Well, is Schwarber even going to be healthy enough to contribute?" Yeah, he sure is. Legging out doubles with no problem. Xander's wrist looks healthy as fuck. The biggest questions regarding the Red Sox were answered this weekend. 

Now the Red Sox go to New York for three games in two days. Interesting those cowardly Yankees have opted to play a full makeup game against the Angels tomorrow rather than play three full games against the Red Sox, but when you've been battling for third place all season you have to resort to these Mickey Mouse antics to try and regain some ground.