The Red Sox beat the Cubs 11-5, securing their first series win of the second half. The Sox are now 10-1 in their last eleven games and 9-2 in the month of July. The Red Sox won their second blowout game of the series, as they had two wins by six runs. The Red Sox showed incredible depth in the lineup, as well as good starting pitching in two out of three of this weekend’s games. With a disastrous weekend from the Yankees, losing two out of three games against the last-place Rockies, the Red Sox have leapfrogged them in the standings. The Blue Jays have also jumped ahead of the Astros for the second wild-card spot, so now the Sox are only two games behind the Astros for the third wild-card spot.
The Red Sox offense went wild this weekend at Wrigley. They scored 23 runs in the series, on ten home runs! That is an average of 3.33 home runs per game. On the season, the Braves lead the MLB with 1.88 homers per game. In the series, the Sox hit .297, which is over 30 points higher than their season average of .265. The Red Sox did all this with what some believe to be a strange lineup in the series finale. Alex Cora started Connor Wong at catcher and put backup catcher Jorge Alfaro, at DH. This ment that Jarren Duran, one of the Sox hitters, would be the bench. While I understand that it was a lefty starter, and Duran hasn’t been performing as well against lefties this season, I don’t understand starting Alfaro. He is hitting .175 on the season, with a 50 OPS+. In contrast, Duran is still hitting .278 against lefties! So, while I can’t understand that decision from the manager, the Red Sox scored eleven runs anyway.
It’s time to talk about Masataka Yoshida. As almost everybody knows by now, after the Red Sox gave Yoshida that big contract, there were executives around the game who said it was an overpay. However, Masataka is proving that if anything, it was an underpay! Yoshida is now second in the MLB in batting average and is slashing .318/.381/.502 for the year. Yoshida has now had multiple hits in eight out of nine games. That is completely unheard of! Today, Masataka hit his second grand slam of the season and later had a two-RBI triple. Not only does he get on base and hit for average, but he also doesn’t strike out much! His 10.9 K% is the fourth lowest in the MLB. Today, with his slam in the fifth, he saved the Sox from squandering a massive opportunity. After scoring one run on an RBI from Refsnyder, they then loaded the bases with nobody out. Devers would strike out, and Duvall would pop out, leaving Yoshida as the last hope. Obviously, Yoshida delivered and got four out of his six RBIs on the day, with a massive grand slam.
Today, Kutter Crawford had it all working. Kutter went six innings, allowing zero runs on only one hit. His number one pitch continues to be his fastball. Today, he had a whiff% of 50 on the heater. Unlike most incredible fastballs in baseball, Kutter’s fastball does not clock above 95 MPH. However, opponents are still only hitting .165 with a .306 SLG against that pitch. So, while Kutter is a great weapon in the bullpen, with a 1.66 ERA in relief, he is giving the Red Sox some great outings while they are short in the rotation.
The Red Sox will now go to Oakland to play a three-game series against the A’s. As we learned not too long ago, the A’s are one of the worst teams in baseball history. The Red Sox will have two bullpen games to start the series; however, the Red Sox should still stomp all over this team. The Red Sox will try to stay hot and take their fifth straight series, starting tomorrow night.
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