State of the Sox
A weekly summary of how the Red Sox performed and where they are heading
Opponents: Rangers, A’s
Week Record: 5-1
Overall Record: 48-43
Current spot in standings: 5th place in the AL East
This has been the best week, start to finish, that the Red Sox have had in a while. They were able to put it all together as strong hitting was paired with great pitching.
The week started off with a loss to the Texas Rangers in what was another bullpen game. The game was played on the fourth of July and the offense for the Rangers was full of fireworks, but that was not the case for the Sox as they lost 6-2.
The Sox were able to bounce back the next day and pick up a 4-2 win, in a game that saw Justin Turner knock in two RBI’s and Brayan Bello continued his hot stretch of pitching, (7 IP and 2 ER), against one of the best offenses in baseball.
The Sox ended up taking the rubber match between the two teams, 10-6, a game that saw the offense explode against old friend, Nate Eovaldi. It was a six-run seventh inning that got the Sox the win.
The Sox continued the run of AL West opponents when the A’s came into town and the Sox did what they should do against the worst team in baseball and swept the weekend series.
They won on Friday, 7-3 behind another bullpen game and multi hit games from Turner, Jarren Duran, and Alex Verdugo.
James Paxton continued his dominance when he pitched six innings of two run ball, on path to a 10-3 win. The offense certainly exploded in this one with five hitters recording multi-hit games.
Despite trailing for most of the game on Sunday, the Sox were able to mount a comeback and a late Masataka Yoshida home run in the eighth inning gave the team a 4-3, a lead that Kenley Jansen promptly saved in the top of the ninth, ending the first half of the season on a five game winning streak.
This week was huge for the team heading into the All-Star Break, as they saw Bello and Paxton continue their dominance, while Duran, who was already having a good season, absolutely exploded this week, hitting .500 and hitting a home run with four RBI’s.
The team now stands five games over .500 and a game back of the New York Yankees and two games back of the Blue Jays for the last AL Wild Card Spot.
The Sox will head into the All-Star Break with a lot of confidence and will start the second half of the season this weekend at Wrigley Field when they take on the Chicago Cubs.
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