Well that didn't take too long. Roughly 24 hours after they clinched a playoff spot, the Red Sox (94-61 overall, 52-27 home) wasted no time dispatching the hapless Blue Jays (70-83 overall, 32-43 away) 6-3 tonight at Fenway Park. Boston clinched its first AL East title in six seasons, the seventh in franchise history.
They remain 2.5 games up on Oakland for the best record in the AL so their hearty celebrations in the clubhouse and back on the field afterwards were well deserved especially after they didn't do anything following Thursday's victory over Baltimore.
There is plenty of work for the Red Sox to do in October in order to accomplish what is well within their grasp: an American League pennant and World Series title. Still, baseball is such an insane grind that it was nice to see them live in the moment for a second and enjoy their excellent regular season. As the last few seasons have shown, AL East (the best division in MLB) titles don't come around that often.
Jon Lester (15-8) set himself up to no question be the No. 1 starter when the playoffs roll around as he put together another stellar outing: seven innings, one earned run, five hits, eight strikeouts and two walks. Junichi Tazawa created a few scary moments when he gave up a two-run homer to Adam Lind in the eighth, cutting Boston's lead to 5-3. No worries, Koji Uehara would just be summoned for a five-out save.
Uehara allowed two hits (which is unheard of for him) and threw 26 pitches but he didn't allow a run and struck out two including Brett Lawrie to end it for his 20th save of the season. More than any other pitcher on the Red Sox, he earned the right to get the biggest out of the season (so far).
Boston's first two runs were gifts as Dustin Pedroia (3 hits, double) scored on a wild pitch in the first and Mike Carp (single) walked with the bases loaded in the second inning. Lawrie got the Jays on the board with an RBI single in the fifth but Boston added three in the seventh on David Ortiz's (run, two walks) RBI single and a two-run single by Carp. How good has Carp been?
With the big league hangovers that they're sure to all have this morning, it's best for the Red Sox that they don't have a game until tomorrow night (7:10, NESN). Clay Buchholz (11-0) faces Mark Buehrle (11-9), who Boston typically owns.
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