David Price Turns In His Third Consecutive Quality Start, As David Ortiz Handles The Rest
Another night, another game in which the Red Sox offense was led by David Ortiz. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Four of Boston’s eight runs were driven in by Ortiz, giving him an MLB-leading 41 RBIs. With a minimum of 30 at-bats, Ortiz leads the majors in batting average with runners in scoring position this year (.421). His second pair of RBIs on the night were knocked in on a fourth inning double, which gave him a major league-leading 20 doubles, and raised his MLB-leading slugging percentage to .686, which also increased his MLB-best OPS to 1.099. Did I miss anything? I suppose it’s worth mentioning that his two-hit night raised his average to .333, which is the fifth best in the American League, with Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. filling up the top two spots.
The hitting streak lives on to 28 games, as Bradley once again extended his streak in his first at-bat. This time, it was a double, which was his 11th on the year. Bradley had 17 doubles in all of last year. The 28-game hitting streak for Bradley ties Wade Boggs for the fifth longest hitting streak in Red Sox history. Next up on the list? Johnny Damon at 29 games in 2005. Then he’s got Nomar Garciaparra (1997) and Tris Speaker (1912) both at 30 games, before he takes a shot at the longest hitting streak in Red Sox history — Dom DiMaggio at 34 games in 1949.
David Price threw his third consecutive quality start, improving to 7-1 on the year. A very deceptive 7-1, as we all know. However, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that he has pitched well as of late, going 3-0 in his last three starts with a 2.57 ERA, a 0.90 WHIP and 23 strikeouts in 21 innings.
Remember that historic run differential that the Chicago Cubs got off to? At +71, the Red Sox are closer to the Cubs in run differential (+118) than the second place Baltimore Orioles (+23) are to the Red Sox. Since April 24, the Red Sox have the best record in the majors at 20-8, which is exactly a one-month span. And they’re whooping that candy ass at home, too, where they’re 17-9 and tied with the Orioles for the most wins at home in the majors. At Fenway Park this year, the Red Sox are averaging 6.7 runs per game, and have an MLB-leading 287 hits at home, which is 52 more hits than the next best team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Final score: Red Sox 8, Rockies 3
Update on Eduardo Rodriguez: Eduardo Rodriguez returned to the mound to pitch for the PawSox last night after being shut down again last week. He threw 102 pitches over seven innings of work, allowing one earned run on four hits, one of which was a solo home run, and struck out seven batters. His fastball was anywhere from 87 to 92mph, so I’m sure the Red Sox will want to see some more consistency with his velocity in the low 90’s before we see him up in Boston. That, and I’m sure they’d like to see more from Joe Kelly so that they can figure out where the hell Rodriguez is going to fit in this rotation once he’s ready.
Radio plug: I’ll be talking Red Sox with Zolak and Bertrand today at 10:50am on 985 The Sports Hub. LISTEN LIVE HERE.