Sox take 5 game win streak on the road
The Boston Red Sox capped off a 6-game home stand with a 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday afternoon. The win was the 5th in a row for the Sox who are now heading to Tampa Bay for a 2-game stint with the 1st place Rays. The Sox took 3 out of 4 earlier this year vs. the Rays and look to gain ground on Tampa in a season that is still young.
The recent 5 game streak has been a combination of strong pitching and an offense that is coming together. The Red Sox have outscored their opponents 34-8 in the last 5 games and Boston’s starting pitchers have tallied up 5 quality starts in a row for the first time since May ’11.
The offense is currently ranked 2nd in the A.L. in batting average(.276), runs scored(199), RBI(192), hits (357) and total bases(579) to only the Texas Rangers. The offense has not been the question mark with this team and has been consistently strong since the beginning.
It was encouraging to see strong, quality starts out of Jon Lester and Josh Beckett. Lester, whose complete game on Monday was the 8th of his career and he is third behind C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee for the most complete games by lefties since 2008.
Beckett amid controversy about his commitment to the team and questions about his off-day golf outing, threw 7 strong innings, striking out a season high 9 on only 93 pitches. If these two continue to settle down and begin to feel comfortable on the mound the Sox can make up ground on the AL East seeing that 3 of the next 5 series are against Tampa and Baltimore.
A.J. Nichols
Boston Sports Desk Correspondent
