At this point with only 24 games left in the regular season, I'm comfortable in saying that reaching the playoffs is almost a foregone conclusion for the Red Sox. Boston (82-56 overall, 45-24 home) swept the hapless White Sox (56-79 overall, 24-45 away) in three games this weekend, culminating with a 7-6 victory this afternoon at Fenway Park. The sweep felt that much better since the Rays dropped all three of their games in Oakland so suddenly they trail Boston by 5.5 games for first place in the AL East.
The Red Sox can be excused for going up 5-0 on the White Sox by the third inning then putting it on cruise control, they are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have won seven of their last eight games. Chicago cut it to 5-4 in the fourth and 7-6 in the eighth but they couldn't come all the way back. Felix Doubront (3.2 innings, 4 earned runs, 7 hits, 90 pitches) was the main reason why this was way tighter than it had to be. Staked to the big lead, he just couldn't put guys away.
Brandon Workman (4-2) got the win in relief but the real stars out of the bullpen today for Boston were Franklin Morales (4 outs), Junichi Tazawa (got out of bases loaded jam to end the seventh) and of course Koji Uehara who recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 16th save of the season.
Jacoby Ellsbury (2 runs, walk, stolen base) started the scoring with a two-run single in the second and David Ortiz came through with a two-run double in the same frame. Stephen Drew made it 5-0 with his 11th homer of the season, a solo shot to left center in the third.
White Sox kept getting on base in the fourth and Jeff Keppinger "put in on the board!" (Hawk Harrelson's deranged voice) with a sacrifice fly. Dayan Viciedo followed with an RBI double and Conor Gillaspie trimmed Boston's lead to 5-4 with a two-run single.
The game took so long (3:39) because there were numerous delays: White Sox manager Robin Ventura was ejected for arguing a call, the Red Sox used six pitchers and Shane Victorino left with a hip injury. Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, run, walk) reached base on an infield hit in the fourth and Ellsbury scored on Gillaspie's throwing error. Ortiz knocked in another run in the inning with an RBI single.
Paul Konerko (2 hits, run, walk) drove in Alexei Ramirez (3 hits, w runs, 2 stolen bases) in the fifth with a single and Tyler Flowers (2 hits) smashed a solo homer in the eighth.
It being September 1, the Red Sox made numerous moves since the rosters expanded: for me the two important ones were the trade for Providence College (my alma mater) alum John McDonald (East Lyme, CT native who lives in Scituate, MA) and designating Daniel Bard for assignment. McDonald is a spectacular shortstop and second basemen that should give them some options in the postseason and down the stretch while Bard's career is truly at a crossroads now.
Thankfully the next five series for the Red Sox are all against teams above .500, that should be good preparation for October not to mention way more entertaining contests. The Tigers (80-57, 1st in AL Central) come to Fenway for a marquee three-game series starting tomorrow afternoon (1:35, NESN)-Labor Day. The possible ALCS preview begins with John Lackey (8-11) vs. Doug Fister (11-7). Max Scherzer (19-1) goes for his MLB-leading 20th win of the season on Tuesday (7:10, NESN) against Jon Lester (12-8) and Ryan Dempster (7-9) wraps it up on Wednesday (7:10, NESN) vs. Rick Porcello (11-7) in what could be a real life version of Home Run Derby.
Boston has experienced incredible luck in the past few weeks in terms of missing top pitchers (Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Chris Sale) and that continues against Detroit since Justin Verlander pitched today vs. Cleveland. Additionally and perhaps more importantly, Miguel Cabrera has sat out the last two games with an injury so who knows his status for these three games. The baseball fan in me wants to see him out there but since the Tigers have such a huge lead (7.5 games over Indians), it would be silly to throw him out there at less than 100%.
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