All of the intrigue about the Red Sox making the playoffs this season has been taken away, not that I'm complaining, as they have put some serious distance between themselves and the rest of the American League: 7.5 games on Tampa Bay entering tonight with both idle, four more wins than Oakland and five more wins than Detroit for the best record. Boston only has 17 games left in the regular season, meaning the AL East crown and home-field advantage is a formality at this point.
Two of the main catalysts of their recent surge have been third baseman Will Middlebrooks and first baseman Mike Napoli. This afternoon, both were named AL co-Players of the Week. Over those seven games, the Red Sox went 5-2 and scored 56 runs. Both guys put up video game numbers: Napoli hit .467 with .577 OBP and 1.143 SLG. Not to be outdone, Middlebrooks hit .464 with .500 OBP and eight runs scored. Each player slugged four home runs (including a grand slam) and nine RBIs.
The last time two Red Sox shared this honor was in April: Napoli and reliever Andrew Bailey, remember him? If they want to go anywhere in the playoffs, Middlebrooks and Napoli will be a key part of their gameplan. We know that Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and to a lesser extent Shane Victorino will get on base. Jacoby Ellsbury is sidelined indefinitely with a broken bone in his foot so who knows when he'll return. On paper, Boston doesn't have the most imposing lineup until you see them in action. They wear pitchers down and run up high pitch counts to get them out early and face the weak middle relievers.
What makes this so impressive is that Mike and Will went through serious slumps at various times this season, so bad that they made you wonder if they'd ever bounce back to be productive in 2013. Middlebrooks was sent down to Pawtucket (Triple-A) for a month and a half but since he returned to the Red Sox on August 10, he's hit .368 with 1.055 OBP, six homers and 16 RBIs. He'll never be Paul Molitor in terms of bat control and being impossible to strike out but he definitely addressed his biggest flaw: chasing bad pitches out of the strike zone plus swinging and missing way too often.
From July 31-August 26, Napoli looked lost: he hit .188 with 38 strikeouts. He's already struck out 172 times this season, meaning he's going to set a new Red Sox single season record so it's pointless to get him to change his softball swing. That's who he is, all or nothing basically every time he steps to the plate. You just have to hope that he continues his hot streak since the Red Sox certainly enjoy his power. The good news is that throughout his career he's been a solid performer in October: in 32 games, he's hit .272, .373 OBP and .457 SLG with five homers and 19 RBIs.
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