Red Sox Become 1st Team To 90 Wins After 8-4 Triumph Over Yankees

We are still a couple weeks away from the postseason but I'm already struggling to find new ways to state that the Red Sox are having an incredible regular season and I hope you're enjoying it half as much as them. Each game brings new heroes and highlights plus bushy beards to tug on. Tonight Boston (90-59 overall, AL-best 45-28 at home) beat the Yankees (79-69 overall, 35-38 away) 8-4 in their series opener at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox are 11-6 against the Yankees with two games left in the regular season. It looked like it was going to be a blowout in the first inning as Boston piled up four runs on Hiroki Kuroda (11-11). A run scored on Mike Carp's ground out, Daniel Nava (2 hits, run) drove in a run with an RBI single and Stephen Drew doubled off the wall which scored two teammates.

Boston starter John Lackey allowed a solo homer to light-hitting Brendan Ryan (2 hits, 2 runs) in the third inning then Lyle Overbay's sacrifice fly in the sixth cut it to 3-2. Robinson Cano (4 for 4 with 3 doubles, run) tied it for the Yankees in the seventh with a two-run double.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia stepped up big time with the deciding play: a grand slam to right center field in the seventh inning. That proved to be the difference, his third career grand slam and 13th homer of the season.

Junichi Tazawa offered a glimpse of what he had been earlier in 2013: a 1-2-3 eighth inning on 10 pitches (9 strikes!). It wasn't a save situation, ugh, but closer supreme Koji Uehara still appeared and recorded his own 1-2-3 ninth inning on 9 pitches (8 strikes) which included a strikeout. I've never seen a Red sox closer or pitcher for that matter on this type of roll, it's amazing.

Dustin Pedroia (2 for 5 with run) continued to bat leadoff with Jacoby Ellsbury out indefinitely. In a matchup that feels like it's happened a bunch of times this season, tomorrow afternoon (1:05, NESN) Jon Lester (13-8) takes on C.C. Sabathia (13-12). Every game is life or death for New York because they are only two games behind Tampa Bay for the second AL Wild Card spot. The Red Sox might not be in it but the chase for the wild card is intense: Cleveland is half a game up on the Yankees, Baltimore is half a game behind New York and the Royals are 3.5 behind the Rays. Got it?

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David Ortiz: Greatest DH In MLB History? He's Got the Hits To Back it Up

One of the best parts about baseball is the history, none of the other major sports in America can instantly conjure up so many memories of past legends like MLB. That's what makes routine 11-4 blowout wins for the Red Sox (56-37 overall, 25-21 away) like tonight against the Mariners (40-51 overall, 22-24 home) at Safeco Field more memorable than you'd think.

David Ortiz was 2 for 3 with a two-run homer, double, sacrifice fly and two runs as he became the all-time leader in hits (1670 after tonight) for a designated hitter. He passed Harold Baines while former Mariners great Edgar Martinez is generally regarded as the best DH even though he's not in the Baseball Hall of Fame (he should be). Let the endless debates begin!

Ortiz's amazing season and by extension career was the obvious individual storyline but for the Red Sox as a team, it was the continued improvement of Felix Doubront (7 innings, 1 earned run, 5 hits, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks) who notched his third quality start in a row. Like John Lackey, Boston really needs Doubront (6-3) to pitch well since Jon Lester has been awful after April and Clay Buchholz hasn't pitched for over a month now.

It always helps when the Red Sox score double-digit runs (for the second straight game and the 11th time this season) with 12 hits and seven walks. In fact the winning team in the first three games of this series has scored 11 runs each time.

Jacoby Ellsbury was 3 for 4 with two runs, a double and RBI, extending his hitting streak to an MLB-best 18 games. Shane Victorino went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run.

Boston went up 9-0 by the sixth inning so they were able to comfortably withstand rookie reliever Brandon Workman's shaky MLB debut. He allowed three runs in the eighth including a solo homer to light-hitting Brendan Ryan-the first batter he faced. He rebounded nicely though to get a 1-2-3 ninth and more importantly, save Boston's patchwork bullpen.

The Red Sox will try to win the series (3 out of 4) tomorrow afternoon (3:40, NESN) as Ryan Dempster (5-8) faces Erasmo Ramirez (0-0) who's making his first start of 2013.

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Wakefield Records A Milestone, Mariners Hit New Low In Red Sox' Sweep

Tim Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox sent the Seattle Mariners out of town with basically the Scarlet Letter for their inept team.

With Boston's (62-37) 12-8 win yesterday afternoon at Fenway Park, Seattle (43-58) was not only swept in the three-game series but they set a new low for the franchise with its record 15th straight loss.

It's basically impossible to see a pitcher get two standing ovations after getting knocked around for seven earned runs on 10 hits in 6.1 innings (with a walk and four strikeouts) but that was the strange scene at Pink Hat Central.

Wakefield (6-3) got the extra dose of love since he became just the second pitcher in Red Sox history, joining Roger Clemens, to put up 2000+ strikeouts.

The win also gave Wake 199 in his Boston career, putting him on the cusp of even more history the next time he starts (Friday in Chicago against the White Sox).

Mariners rookie Michael Pineda (8-7) was a surprise All-Star this season but he was anything but in that type of form yesterday. In 4.1 innings, he allowed seven earned runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

The conveyor belt (somewhere Claude Julien smiles) that is the Red Sox lineup continued to churn out double-digits with 17 hits in the game.

Jarrod Saltlamacchia led Boston with three hits and four RBIs. Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez each had three hits, two runs and two RBIs. Josh Reddick had two hits, two runs and an RBI, David Ortiz had two hits and two runs while Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits, a run and an RBI.

Kevin Youkilis smacked a two-run homer and scored two runs while Dustin Pedroia's double extended his hit streak to a career-high 21 games (an AL high this season) and he's reached base in 32 consecutive games (tops in the majors).

Brendan Ryan led Seattle with two hits and five RBIs. Franklin Gutierrez had two hits and three runs while Ichiro (run), Dustin Ackley (RBI) and Mike Carp all had two hits apiece.

Miguel Olivo gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with a two-run bomb in the first.

No surprise, the lead was short-lived as the Red Sox put up a five-spot in the home half of the inning. Gonzalez drove in Ellsbury with an RBI single and Youk put Boston up 3-2 with a two-run shot (his 14th of the season). Salty's two-run single made it 5-2.

Ryan's RBI double in the fifth cut it to 5-3 in favor of the Red Sox.

Once again, Boston put up five runs, this time in the fifth inning. Crawford hit a two-run single to left (all three of his hits were to the opposite field, a good sign), Reddick had an RBI double and Saltalamacchia had another two-run single.

Gonzalez's RBI single in the sixth made the lead balloon to 11-3 for Boston.

Ryan's grand slam in the seventh cut it to 11-7, not that you had to worry since it was the M's. It also signaled the end of Wakefield's outing. Alfredo Aceves got the last eight outs of the contest.

Ellsbury added an RBI single in the seventh before Ackley closed out the scoring with an RBI double in the ninth.

The Kansas City Royals, a team that has an even worse record than Seattle, comes to Boston for their first meeting with the Red Sox this season. Jon Lester gets his first start since July 5 when he left a game early with the injury to his left latissimus muscle.

Facing Kyle Davies (1-9) and a team that he's 4-1 against all-time (including a no-hitter) with a 1.22 ERA seems like the perfect matchup for Lester to get back on his feet. Needless to say, he's a huge piece of the Red Sox' playoff hopes in this season which gets brighter as each day passes by. Boston remains three games ahead of New York for first-place in the AL East.

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