State of the Sox
A weekly summary of how the Red Sox performed and where they are heading
Photo Credits: Masslive
Opponents: Braves, Giants (A)
Week Record: 3-3
Overall Record: 56-49
Current spot in standings: 4th place in AL East
The week started off as good as anyone could have asked for as they swept the midweek two game series with the mighty Atlanta Braves with scores of 7-1 and 5-3.
In the first game of the series, the offense was firing on all cylinders and Nick Pivetta was solid out of the bullpen leading the team to the six run win.
John Scrheiber also made his much anticipated return in the opener role.
The second game of the series saw a toe-to-toe matchup between the two teams aces in Spencer Strider and Brayan Bello.
Neither allowed a run til the fifth when an Ozzie Albies three-run home run gave the Braves a 3-0 lead.
Devers had a solo home run off of Strider, followed up the next inning by a solo shot from Tristan Casas, making it 3-2 Braves.
Justin Turner had the clutch hit on this night with a two-run double off the wall in the seventh inning to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.
Adam Duvall added an insurance run off of an opposite field home-run, clinching the 5-3 win.
The Sox then headed west to the Bay Area to take on the San Francisco Giants, and opened up this series with a 3-2 win.
In this game, the bullpen was lights out following a tremendous start by Kutter Crawford.
Casas also stayed red hot as he got an RBI double and a solo home run.
The offense was no where really to be seen for the rest of the series as in the 3-2 loss on Saturday, the offense was being shut out until a ninth inning rally off of Camilo Doval, the Giants closer, tied this game at two. This rally was staged by a Masataka Yoshida walk, followed up by a huge Jarren Duran double off the wall, and then finished off by a Turner two RBI single up the middle.
Unfortunately for the Sox, J.D. Davis did not want to stick around long and on the first pitch off of Kenley Jansen in the ninth, hit a ball off the foul poll to win it for the Giants.
In the rubber match of the series, the offense was once again lifeless until the late innings when Turner had to play mr. clutch once again hitting a two-run home run in the 8th inning to give the team a 3-2 lead, a lead that was promptly blown in the bottom half of the inning.
The two teams entered extra innings tied at 3, and after terrible base running by both teams in the ninth and tenth innings, the Giants were finally able to win it in the bottom of the 11th inning off of a Joc Pederson single.
This week showed what the Sox were truly capable of when they put it all together, but unfortunately what has been the case for most of the season, they have not been able to put it all together consistently.
Tristan Casas power surged continued and it even lead to him being put in the clean up spot in the order, making the fans smile a little bit more about him.
The team will look to get back on track when they take on the Seattle Mariners tonight in Seattle.
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