Red Sox Heating Up At Right Time
The Red Sox are on a nine game winning streak, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We are 8 weeks from the final game of the season and the Red Sox are running away with the AL East. Currently 4 games ahead of the Yankees for first, the Yankees have hit a slump lately, losing 4 out of their last 6.
There are two main factors for the Red Sox hot streak:
1: They are playing good.
2: The Yankees are losing
The first factor is plain and simple. They have been playing good as of late winning six in a row, including series wins vs the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians. To start the series vs Cleveland, the Sox took a 6-2 win, where Doug Fister took a shutout into the 8th inning and offensively Nunez collected 2 RBIs, Betts collected 3, and Devers also drove in 1 run. Christian Vazquez hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in game 2, to complete the 12-10 win. The Chicago series started on Thursday. Thursday they beat the White Sox 9-5, the offense EXPLODED, scoring 7 runs in 1 ⅔ innings. Mookie, Hanley, and Devers all had 2 RBIs, and Benintendi, Nunez, and Moreland all added 1 RBI each. Game two was on Friday when the Sox walked off AGAIN! This time it was Mitch Moreland in the bottom of the 11th inning. Game three on Saturday was another win, 4-1. Benintendi and Bradley Jr. each had 2 RBIs. Finally the most recent game today. The Red Sox beat the White Sox in the season finale to sweep the series, by a score of 6-3. Chris Young had 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.
The second factor was nothing that the Red Sox could control. The Yankees have been in a slump lately going 5-5 in their last 10 games. Those 5 losses came to the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers (twice), and the Cleveland Indians (twice). Four of those losses came all consecutively. The Yanks lost to the Tigers 4-3 on Tuesday, August 1st as Justin Upton launched his 18th home run of the year. The very next day they lost again, 2-0. The rain caused this game to be delayed twice but Jordan Zimmerman couldn’t be stopped, throwing 7 shutout innings. New York travelled to Cleveland on Thursday and lost 5-1, Corey Kluber struck out 11, and Francisco Lindor hit his 18th homer of the season. Finally on Friday the Yanks lost to the Indians again, 7-2 and this time Trevor Bauer dominated over 7 innings allowing only 1 run.
If both of these factors, the Red Sox playing good and the Yankees losing, can remain a constant then the Red Sox will easily win the AL East. The Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays in a two game series at Tropicana Field on Tuesday the 8th and Wednesday the 9th. The Sox and Yanks battle in a 3-game set from Friday, the 11th to Sunday the 13th where they will play on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN at 8:05 pm.
