Boston’s Alex Verdugo, right, is welcomed to the dugout by Justin Turner after scoring on a ground-rule double by Triston Casas in the second game of a doubleheader against the Yankees on Sunday night in Boston. It was the first time the Red Sox have swept a doubleheader against New York since 1976. Steven Senne/Associated Press
This week will tell us a lot about the 2023 Boston Red Sox, who are once again above .500 as they embark on a trip to the Midwest.
Good vibes were bubbling to the surface Sunday after the Red Sox swept the Yankees in a doubleheader at Fenway Park for the first time since July 31, 1976. Boston outscored its rivals 25-8 over the weekend, and drove in 20 runs with two outs. New York’s pitching staff couldn’t figure out how to put Boston hitters away.
Red Sox pitching had a much easier time dealing with a Yankees lineup that is struggling to score runs without Aaron Judge. The Yankees have a MLB-worst .195 batting average since Judge was injured. Giancarlo Stanton went 0 for 7 and struck out five times in Sunday’s doubleheader.
The Red Sox took advantage of a depleted Yankees lineup over the past two weekends, taking 5 of 7 games to get back above .500. Can they now take advantage of the momentum they built over the weekend?
One of the most frustrating aspects of this season is that Boston hasn’t been able to build on success often enough. They hit the road for a seven-game trip to Minnesota and Chicago with a winning record against teams with winning records and a losing record against teams with losing records. They have lost series to some of the worst teams in baseball, going 1-5 against the Rockies and Cardinals — two teams that have yet to win 30 games.
With their first four-game winning streak in nearly a month, the Red Sox have crept back within two games in the AL wild-card race. They have been pitching better for a month and finally put together the offense to match. It is far from a complete product, but it’s a reminder of the team that was holding onto a playoff spot just over a month ago.
There’s a lot of time left in the season. The Red Sox still have more than half their games remaining. Yet the time to prove what this team is worthy of is running out. The MLB trade deadline is only six weeks away, meaning Chaim Bloom will have to decide if this team is worth investing in well before Aug. 1.
Last year Chaim Bloom tried to play it both ways at the deadline and was widely criticized for failing to do enough. Trading away Christian Vazquez hurt the team in the short term but keeping other veterans didn’t do enough to help the team retrench for the following year.
Bloom won’t make the same mistake this season. If the Sox can’t build on this past weekend he will have to consider trading off veterans approaching free agency.
That seemed a fait accompli just a few days ago as the Red Sox fell below .500 after losing two sloppy games to the last-place Rockies at Fenway. It looked like any hopes of a playoff race were over.
Trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning of the final game of that series the Sox offense came to life. They scored five runs to take the lead, their biggest offensive inning since June 3. That may have sparked the offense leading into the Yankee series. They built on that momentum, and built a winning streak.
We’ve seen this before. It’s the third time the Sox have won four or more consecutive games. With the exception of the eight-game winning streak that ended May 6 the Sox have not shown the consistency it takes to be a contender.
The Red Sox arrived in Minnesota in last place, but with a better record than the first-place Twins. That’s life in the AL East, baseball’s Group of Death. The good news is the Sox won’t face a team with a winning record for more than a week.
The bad news is they won’t face the Yankees again until August.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. He is a graduate of Lewiston High School.
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