1918 Revisited...Sort Of

The Red Sox were scoring runs like there was no tomorrow (Rapture pun very much intended!), piling 15 on Chicago Cubs pitching. The only team to outdo them in the slugging department last night were my hometown Washington Nationals, who bludgeoned the O's 17-5. For the Sox, it was an offensive explosion exceeding all others so far this season and the first time they scored 10 or more runs in a game. They allowed Lester, who turned in his third sub-par start in a row, to pick up his team-leading 6th win of the season and cruised to their 7th straight win, a streak that began with sweeping the Yankees last weekend. Since their division rivals both lost, the Red Sox pulled to within a half game of first place and shoved the Yankees down to third.

This has been the kind of run the Red Sox have been waiting for all season and their ascension in the AL East standings is due to a surprising level of parity among the teams in the division. The Rays started out just as badly as the Sox, but picked up speed much sooner and started challenging the Yankees for the top spot in the latter weeks of April. The Yankees had their chances to pull away and put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division, but never capitalized, much to the delight and relief of Red Sox Nation. Consequently, the Red Sox have been able to catch up, despite an abysmal April and their seemingly endless struggles to reach .500. Now, the Sox need to keep the pedal to the metal and keep fighting for that top spot in the division. If they win tonight and the Rays lose, it's theirs for the taking.

Leading the hit parade in last night's game was Adrian Gonzalez, who went 4 for 6 with 4 RBI, putting him back in the lead for most RBI in the majors. Youk had 3 hits, including a 2-run blast off of Scott Maine in the 4th that put the Sox up 8-2 at the time. Ells also had 3 hits, including a 2 RBI double off of Maine. Salty was 2 for 4, going yard in the 5th. Pedey, Lowrie, and Papi each had 2 hits and Crawford had 1. The only starter not to get a hit was Mike Cameron, but he got on base twice via the walk and scored one run.

After Lester threw 6 innings and allowed the Cubs to score 5 runs, Scott Atchison came on and threw 3 scoreless frames to give his bullpen-mates some rest. With Aceves starting today and Wake tomorrow, the 'pen needs to be well rested.