State of the Sox

A weekly summary of how the Red Sox performed and where they are heading

Photo Credits: Foppa.Casa

Opponents: Royals, Tigers

Week Record: 5-2

Overall Record: 62-56

Current spot in standings: 4th place in AL East

This week, the Red Sox played some of the worst teams that the AL had to offer and they were able to take care of business for the most part.

On Monday, Brayan Bello was solid against the Kansas City Royals giving up just one run in 6.2 IP. Unfortunately for him, the offense gave him no run support as they saw a 2-0 lead vanish rather quickly and he ended up with the no decision.

There was a lot of drama in this one as with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, Pablo Reyes stepped up to the plate following some questionable check swing calls, and proceeded to send Fenway park into a frenzy with a walk-off grand slam. Winning the game for the Sox, 6-2.

If you were hoping for the momentum to carry into the next day, you were sadly mistaken. As the team looked lifeless on offense and the pitching was not any better as they fell 9-3. The only positives in this one was an RBI double from Jarren Duran and an Adam Duvall solo shot. Also, Trevor Story made his long awaited season debut, going 0-4 with three strikeouts in the game.

The next day was as memorable as you could imagine, with the team ultimately walking away with a 4-3 win.

The first event that would leave you speechless is when Kyle Isbel hit a ball off the Green Monster, but instead of bouncing back to Masataka Yoshida, the ball disappeared into the light ball.

This was followed by a crazy fourth inning, as with the Sox trailing 2-1, Alex Verdugo came up with two outs and lined a ball into left field. Mj Melendez tried to superman dive and catch it, but the ball popped out of his glove, allowing two runs to score.

Later in the same inning, it looked like the inning was over when recently acquired Luis Urias scorched a liner to third base, but it was called back for catchers interference. Then, Reese McGuire steps up and hits an RBI single but eventually gets into a run down, while this was going on, Urias tried to go home but was eventually thrown out.

Lots to keep you on your toes in this one. As Tristan Casas also hit a solo home run and Kenley Jansen also got the save.

The series finale was not nearly as exciting as the game before as the Sox were able to win what Dave O’Brien described as a “snooze fest” 2-0. This was behind lights out pitching and some timely offense.

The Sox then welcomed in the the Detroit Tigers for the weekend and were able to take game one by a score of 5-2.

In this game, Chris Sale made his return from the IL and in just 4.2 IP struck out seven, picking up where he left off prior to getting hurt. Casas delivered the big blow in this game with a three-run shot and Story started to heat up with a two hit game.

The middle set of the series was one to forget as the Tigers were able to take it 6-2 and as something that seems to be said a lot in these blogs, the offense was lifeless. Bello was surprisingly underwhelming in this one giving up four ER in just 4.2 IP.

In the series finale on Sunday, the offense woke up in a big way against former friend Eduardo Rodriguez. Connor Wong and Justin Turner had big hits as Wong had an RBI triple while Turner hit a solo shot. The big performers today were Duvall, who had two hits, including a home run and four RBIS. Story started to look like he got that timing down as he had four hit, which included three doubles.

Garrett Whitlock made his return as well and threw two shutout innings and the Sox took it 6-3.

This week was a massive positive for the team as they desperately needed to string some wins together after how poorly last week went and they were able to get three major reinforcements back as well.

They showed they have the ability to play at a high level but the biggest issue so far has been consistency.

The team will look to keep the momentum going when they head to Washington on Tuesday to take on the Nationals in a three game set.

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