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Red Sox Break Franchise Record For Wins In A Season

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Move over Tris Speaker and Smokey Joe Wood, there’s a new Sox sheriff in town.

Boston won its 106th game Monday night, defeating the hapless Orioles 6-2 at Fenway Park. With the win, the 2018 Sox have now won more regular season games than any other team in the franchise’s history. That’s a pretty incredible feat, considering the Red Sox have been around for 118 seasons.

As if breaking a century-plus old record wasn’t enough, the Red Sox also clinched the best record in baseball. Home field advantage: actually good.

Mookie Betts: Award Tour

As has been the case for nearly all of 2018, Boston’s victory was spearheaded by the AL MVP favorite. Betts was electrifying once again, going 2-5 with a 2-run homer and a stolen base.

The dinger was an absolute rocket, and capped off a four-run 2nd inning for the Sox. Orioles starter Dylan Bundy hung a 1-0 breaking ball over the dead-center of the plate, and Betts went windshield-hunting on the Mass Pike:

Getting taken deep is nothing new for Bundy; he’s allowed an MLB-worst 39 big flies this season. As for Betts, he’s certifiably on fire again. He has 10 hits in his last 20 ABs, with 3 HR and 8 doubles. He’s also only one steal away from a 30-30 season. Betts has all but locked up the MVP award with an absolutely stellar year. He leads the majors in batting average and bWAR, and has been the most consistently excellent all-around player in baseball. Betts’ 2018 season is also the best individual Red Sox season (per bWAR) since Pedro Martinez in 2000, and best by a position player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. In short, it’s been a historic year, on a historic team.

Eovaldi Makes His Case

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Saturday that Nathan Eovaldi had a chance to supplant Eduardo Rodriguez in the playoff rotation. Eovaldi certainly made his case for the 4th spot on Monday night. He allowed only 1 run (while striking out 10 Orioles) over 5 innings of work.

Rodriguez made his first appearance out of the bullpen, as well. He followed up Eovaldi’s start with two shutout innings of his own.

Manager Alex Cora has said who starts Game 4 of the ALDS will be matchup dependent. At this point it makes sense that Eovaldi has closed the gap on Rodriguez. E-Rod has been inconsistent in four starts this month after missing half of July and all of August on the disabled list. He’s posted a 5.79 ERA in his September starts, mixing a pair of solid outings against sub-.500 teams with a pair of poor efforts vs. playoff-bound Houston and New York.

Of course, who is actually slated to start that game could be a moot point. Should the Red Sox sweep (or get swept), or fall into a 2-1 series deficit, we might not see a 4th starter in the ALDS, anyway. Still, it’s a key theme to keep an eye on over the final week of the season.

The Red Sox have made history, and checked all of the boxes that they’ve needed to check this season. They can effectively plan for the postseason, having secured their place at the top of Major League Baseball and as the best regular season Red Sox team in franchise history.

Time will tell whether or not this has any bearing in October, when the records are reset to 0-0 and chaos reigns supreme.

Sox Split With Indians In Potential October Preview

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A few thoughts on the Red Sox series split with the Cleveland Indians right after I dig up my road trip fedora…

Man, that four-game set had an October feel, didn’t it? The Sox were able to roar back after dropping the first two games, including yesterday’s near-flawless 7-0 victory. It was the first meeting of the season between the two teams, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a rematch in the postseason.

The Sox dropped the first game on Monday, after Rick Porcello allowed 3 HR (and 5 ER) over 7 innings. It’s been a weird season for the righthander out of Morristown, NJ. On one hand, it feels like he’s been far more consistent than in 2017 or 2015. On the other, his 4.14 ERA is more in line with those seasons than his 2016 Cy Young award-winning campaign. His August has made even less sense. He’s 2-2 over 4 starts this month, with a 4.67 ERA. But, opponents are only hitting .156 against him over that stretch. Go figure, right?

There’s one smoking gun here: Porcello can’t seem to keep the ball in the yard. Last season, he gave up a league-leading 38 round-trippers. This year, those struggles have resurfaced. Porcello has already given up 22 big flies in 2018, tying him for 12th in the majors. However, 8 of those have come over his last 5 outings, at a rate of 2.2 per 9 innings. For reference, Dylan Bundy‘s MLB-worst HR/9 is 2.19.

The Sox lost game two thanks to a stellar outing from Indians rookie Shane Bieber. Bieber shut down the best offense in baseball for 6 innings, before the Sox tagged him for 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th. It tied the longest losing streak of the season for Boston (3 games), and prompted plenty of “the Red Sox can’t beat a real team” social media activity from Indians fans (who conveniently ignore the trainwreck that is the non-Cleveland part of the AL Central standings) and Yankees fans (whose team is currently 11-10 in August).

Boston bounced back to even the series and escape with a split thanks to two total team efforts on Wednesday and Thursday. However, a pair of players deserve special mention. Xander Bogaerts and David Price.

Bogaerts went 6-19 across the four game series, collecting at least one hit in each contest. He also continued to rake with runners in scoring position, driving in 8 men. On Wednesday night, Bogey erased a 2-1 4th inning deficit by launching a slider onto the Mass Pike:

He followed that dinger up with another in the bottom of the 7th (this time to right-center), to increase the Sox lead to 5 runs:

Two weeks ago I wrote about how the biggest thing holding Bogaerts back from true superstardom is his tendency to trail off in the second half of the season. Since then, the Red Sox shortstop is batting .348/.411/.717, with 3 HR and 14 RBI. Seems like this is the year where he finally asserts himself down the stretch.

Price was masterful on Thursday afternoon, while the Sox plated 6 runs in the 5th en route to an easy win. The 32-year-old lefty posted 8 scoreless innings with 7 Ks, allowing only 3 hits and no walks. He capped it all off by blowing a fastball by Indians catcher Roberto Perez, a cherry on top of a shutout sundae:

https://twitter.com/takeyourbasepod/status/1032717906717671426

For all of the negative press Price has managed to get during his Red Sox career (some warranted, some less so), he’s been tough to criticize recently. He’s won 5 of his last 7 starts, a stretch where his ERA has decreased with each outing. Over those 7 starts, he’s 5-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 48 innings. Opposing batters are only mustering a .200 batting average against him, and he’s throwing nearly 70% of his pitches for strikes. Price’s season ERA has dropped from 4.44 on July 7th to its current mark of 3.50…pretty good.

With Chris Sale on the shelf for the time being, the Sox have needed their $30+ million man to step up. He’s done that and more over the last month and a half.

The Red Sox won’t see Cleveland again until Sept. 21, another matchup that will have a decidedly October vibe, as well as October implications. If that series is anything like this one, it’ll be appointment viewing for both sides.