State of the Sox
A weekly summary of how the Red Sox performed and where they are heading
Opponents: Marlins, Blue Jays (A)
Week Record: 3-3
Overall Record: 43-42
Current spot in standings: 5th place in the AL East
In reverse order of what happened last week, this week started off as ugly as you could get, before ending in a positive manner.
The week started with a sweep to the hands of the Miami Marlins, a series that saw the Red Sox score a total of three runs in the three game series. The first two games were not even close as they lost 10-1 and 6-2.
The third game of the series somehow managed to top both those games in terms of frustration as the Sox wasted a gem of a start from Brayan Bello, who has quickly emerged as the ace of this staff.
Bello went seven innings of one run ball and recorded five strike outs and only one walk. This start seemed to have a bit of magic in it as Bello entered the eighth without allowing a hit before surrendering back to back hits to Jean Segura and Joey Wendle to lead off the inning.
The Sox offense was a no show and the Marlins won the game 2-0, after a Jazz Chisholm Jr. home run off of Kenley Jansen in the ninth extended the lead.
The Sox seemed to turn it around in Toronto sweeping the Blue Jays in the weekend series, starting with a James Paxton dominant start spearheading a 5-0 win.
The Sox were able to win game two 7-6 despite some late game nerves. A Vlad Guerrero Jr. two out single with runners on second and third with a 7-5 deficit staring him in the face was picked up by Alex Verdugo and launched back into home plate to throw Bo Bichette out at the plate who was trying to tie the game from second.
After the hit, the Jays fans were as loud as could be. Before turning to absolute silence after Bichette was thrown out by five feet.
This was not the end of the Verdugo heroics as the Sox were able to win a back and forth game on Sunday, 5-4, after a ninth inning home run by Verdugo.
The ninth inning go ahead home run secured the win and improved the Sox record against the Jays to 7-0 on the season. This is a big turn around from 2022, which they went 3-13 against their north border rivals.
This week was the epitome of the Jeckle and Hyde team the 2023 Red Sox have been, especially the offense being a no show in the Marlins series, to competing with and doing better than one of the best offenses in baseball.
The fans did see a pair of dominant starts from Paxton and Bello, Tristan Casas and Jarren Duran showed you even more this week, and Kiké Hernández showed why he should not be on this team even more.
The team will start a three game series tomorrow night at Fenway Park against the AL West leading Texas Rangers.
Follow Brandon on twitter: Brandonmurdoc11
For additional Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, MLB and NFL content follow Beyond the Monster on Twitter @BeyondtheMnstr.
Join our new Facebook group for all of our latest content, click the link here.