Things The Red Sox Don't Like This Season: Sweeping Other Teams & Being At .500 or Better

Listen, coming into the weekend I thought there was no chance that the Red Sox would sweep the A's-the AL's best team-at Fenway Park. However, after Boston (15-17 overall, 8-11 home) won on Friday and Saturday, I was hoping that they could beat Oakland (19-12 overall, 13-6 away) on Sunday for two simple reasons: 1) It would be the first sweep of the season in Boston's favor and 2) they would finally reach the elusive .500 mark (they were 0-7 coming into Sunday afternoon in games where they could get to .500). Naturally, the A's won 3-2 in 10 innings to salvage something from the three games.

Sonny Gray (6 innings, 2 earned runs, 6 hits, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks) and John Lackey (6 innings, 2 earned runs, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks) were both good while each offense conversely couldn't get much going. Oakland took a 1-0 lead in the first on former Red Sox great Brandon Moss' (2 for 4, double) RBI single. Grady Sizemore (2 for 2) tied it with an RBI double in the fifth.

Once again, the A's pulled ahead with an RBI double by Yoenis Cespedes in the sixth. A.J. Pierzynski answered with a solo homer, his third of the season and first at Fenway, in the seventh. Andrew Miller, Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara all pitched scoreless innings before Chris Capuano (1-1) ran into a little trouble in the 10th. Oakland's winning run was pushed across on an infield single by Cespedes. Boston was shut down by former Orioles closer Jim Johnson (3-2) who got the last five outs of the game.

It is a weird schedule for the Red Sox this week since they are off tomorrow then host Cincinnati (15-16 overall, 3rd in NL Central) for two games before another off-day on Thursday. Felix Doubront (1-3) faces Homer Bailey (2-2) on Tuesday (7:10, NESN) and Jake Peavy (1-1) meets Mike Leake (2-3) on Wednesday (7:10, NESN).

For their sake, the not ready for primetime Red Sox better hope that the Bruins keep advancing in the playoffs, the Celtics win the first pick in the NBA Draft and something interesting happens with the Patriots. Otherwise, people will turn their attention to the Red Sox and as they've proven so far, they are not worth keeping close tabs on so far in 2014.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate