The Sox did it, what seemed to be the impossible a week ago has come true. Boston won their sixth game in a row raising their record to 10-10 and now sitting at
.500 just a few games behind Baltimore and Tampa Bay for the lead in the division. It took the best pitching performance of the year for the Sox, but it was a huge confidence booster for everyone involved. Jon Lester went seven very strong innings striking out seven without allowing a run. He turned the ball over to the bullpen with just a one run lead and absolutely no margin for error. Franklin Morales and Vincente Padilla combined to pitch a scary, but scoreless eighth inning leaving Alfredo Aceves three outs to get and he did. Aceves pitched his first inning without allowing a baserunner and striking out one. Once again the bullpen looked strong.
On the other side over shadowed by the Sox sixth straight win was Jake Peavy’s great performance allowing just one run in a complete game. He allowed just five base-runners all night and struck out seven, but his offense couldn’t come through for him. This kind of win even gives confidence to the offense, realizing they aren’t going to have to score ten runs a night in order to get a win. Jon Lester got his first win in his last eight starts dating back to last season, hard to say that doesn’t give him a ton of confidence especially knowing if he had allowed a single run he wouldn’t have got it.
What I don’t understand is why Ryan Sweeney isn’t playing everyday, regardless of whether the opposing pitcher is a lefty or not. The guy is batting .391 and is in the top five in the American League in batting average, at least give the guy a chance to see how he hits them on this hot streak. Clearly he is seeing the ball remarkably well and another lefty on the team, David Ortiz, happens to be hitting .400 for the season and against lefties alone. Now I know he isn’t Big Papi, but Ortiz is hitting lefties well for the first time in a long time and it just so happens it’s while he is swinging the hottest bat in the league. Can’t tell me those two things don’t have some correlation, so why not give Sweeney a chance against lefties, especially when you have a shorthanded outfield.
The Sox look for a seven game winning streak tomorrow, all on the road and a four game sweep of the Chicago White Sox. They will be matched up against Gavin Floyd who has had the Sox number in the past, career 6-0 against them. However, Josh Beckett has been pitching much better as of late and the Sox are just finding ways to win. It should be a great final game to the road trip.
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