Homestand Highlights
Record (6-1) Season (68-30) GB 0.0 Series Play (22-7-2)
- Red Sox fans, rejoice, for we have never witnessed a better first half start in franchise history. Many feel this might be the best edition of the hometown nine ever, but time will tell the tale. With a 4.5 bulge on the Yankees at the break, Boston is enjoying their biggest lead in the division so far this season. While on the topic of the division, Boston has simply owned the AL East with a 32-13 record with the only fly in the ointment being a losing record against those damn Yankees (4-5). Boston has a 20-10 record against the AL West, 9-6 against the AL Central, and a 7-1 mark in interleague play. The Sawx split things right down the middle in the win column with 34 victories at home and on the road, and they have the best home winning percentage (34-13 .723). They rank second in road winning percentage (34-17 .667) trailing only the Astros.
- The offensive has really turned up the heat at home as the Red Sox lead the majors in batting average with a .288 mark, and are second in runs scored with 279. Fenway has traditionally been a haven for doubles hitters and this year is no different as Boston leads baseball with 119 two-baggers. The Red Sox have also demonstrated a penchant for the dramatic as they have clubbed 6 of their 9 grand slams at home.
- In the Toronto series, Boston belted two grannies with each authored by Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts respectively. Both of these homers accentuated the phenomenal swagger this club seems to gravitate to when the lights shine the brightest. In the opening game of the Blue Jays' series, Betts may have had the at-bat of the season against Toronto's J.A. Happ. With the Red Sox trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth with 2 out, Mookie battled through a 13 pitch duel before launching a 3-2 fastball over and out of Fenway. Not to be outdone, Xander cleared the sacks in walk-off style in the third game. After Bogaerts came across to tie the game 2-2 on a Jackie Bradley Jr. double in the ninth, Xander drilled a ball to deep center in the tenth that just cleared the fence. For Xander, it was his third grand slam of the season and fourth of his career. Betts also has 4 career slams, and his epic at-bat against Happ was his second of the 2018 campaign. Boston earned their tenth sweep against the Rangers in the first series on the homestand. Once again, Boston has been judicious in this regard as they have 5 blankings at home and 5 on the road. Boston has yet to be swept in 2018.
- Mookie Betts remarkable season certainly has a hometown flavor. He is slashing.410/.497/.787 at home and is second in doubles with 15. His two grand slams mentioned above have also come on home soil. It comes as no surprise that the second-leading hitter in batting average at Fenway is J.D. Martinez. J.D. is batting .353 and has been the most productive Red Sox at home with 19 homers and 50 RBI. Xander Bogaerts is second in home RBI with 37 thanks in large part to his 3 grand slams which were all hit at Fenway Park. Andrew Benintendi was red-hot coming into the break and contended for a spot in the all-star game before losing to Jean Segura of the Mariners in the final vote. In his last 7 games before being placed on the bereavement list, Andrew was stroking a scalding .519. At Fenway, he sits third in team batting average with a .335 mark.
- Boston suffered a blow on the bump with the ankle injury to Eduardo Rodriguez in the Toronto series. He was having a fabulous homestand with 11 scoreless innings, and he had the longest active scoreless innings streak in the majors with 19 shutout innings. At Fenway, Eduardo has the best winning percentage in the regular rotation with a 6-2 record and is second to Chris Sale in home ERA (3.30). Now he'll be in a walking boot for about 2 weeks before he even gets back to throwing a baseball, so the depth of the Boston pitching staff will be tested. Drew Pomeranz doesn't seem to be getting on track in Pawtucket, so they will rely on a mixture of Steven Wright, Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez initially in the second half. The padding in the win column from the first half may very well be a welcome revelation with Rodriguez on the shelf. The otherworldly Chris Sale has simply been a beast. In his last 7 starts, he has a 0.94 ERA with 78 punchouts and only allowed 10 walks. Sale has recorded 11+ strikeouts and 1 or 0 BB in 5 consecutive starts, extending the longest such streak in MLB history. And just when you think he couldn't be any stingier, Chris hasn't allowed a homer in his last 51 innings pitched. Boston really needs David Price and Rick Porcello to step up in a big way. Porcello has been inconsistent after a wonderful start to the season. In his first 7 games, he was 5-0 with a 2.14 ERA. In those 7 outings, he struck out 46 batters in 46.1 innings allowing only 2 homers. However, in his next 13 starts, he has a 5.38 ERA and has surrender 12 dingers. His record is 6-4 in those starts, but Boston needs more stability from Porcello, especially at home. Rick has been smacked for 9 long balls and stapled for a 4.97 ERA at Fenway. Price had a respectable outing against Toronto after being slapped around for 12 runs in his previous two starts( 8 innings pitched) and improved to 5-2 at Fenway with a 3.69 ERA. Taking a quick peek in the bullpen, Craig Kimbrel notched 3 saves on the homestand and has the most saves at the all-star break (30) in Red Sox history. Ryan Brasier has been a pleasant surprise with a scoreless homestand debut. Contrarily, Joe Kelly continued his downward spiral, and Robby Scott just needs to go away.
| Name | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA ▼ |
OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mookie Betts | 7 | 31 | 26 | 8 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .538 | .613 | .885 | 1.498 |
| Andrew Benintendi | 4 | 17 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | .375 | .412 | .563 | .974 |
| Blake Swihart | 3 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .364 | .364 | .545 | .909 |
| Jackie Bradley Jr. | 6 | 22 | 21 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .333 | .364 | .571 | .935 |
| Tzu-Wei Lin | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .500 | .333 | .833 |
| Steve Pearce | 3 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .556 | .833 | 1.389 |
| Xander Bogaerts | 7 | 30 | 29 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | .310 | .333 | .690 | 1.023 |
| J.D. Martinez | 7 | 30 | 26 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | .308 | .400 | .615 | 1.015 |
| Sam Travis | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 | .400 | .500 | .900 |
| Brock Holt | 6 | 26 | 25 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 0 | .240 | .269 | .280 | .549 |
| Eduardo Nunez | 6 | 24 | 24 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .208 | .208 | .208 | .417 |
| Sandy Leon | 6 | 22 | 21 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .190 | .227 | .238 | .465 |
| Mitch Moreland | 6 | 21 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .125 | .286 | .125 | .411 |
| Rafael Devers | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .143 | .000 | .143 |
| Name | G | GS ▼ |
W | L | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | GB/FB | BAbip | SO9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eduardo Rodriguez | 2 | 2 | 1 | 11.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0.00 | 50% | .233 | 8.2 | ||
| Brian Johnson | 1 | 1 | 4.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3.86 | 18% | .100 | 9.6 | |||
| Rick Porcello | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 36.00 | 36% | .556 | 9.0 | ||
| David Price | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6.2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 4.05 | 39% | .267 | 10.8 | ||
| Chris Sale | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0.00 | 57% | .429 | 15.4 | ||
| Hector Velazquez | 2 | 1 | 5.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1.80 | 69% | .167 | 9.0 | |||
| Matt Barnes | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 2.70 | 17% | .667 | 21.6 | ||
| Jalen Beeks | 1 | 0 | 2.1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11.57 | 44% | .444 | 3.9 | |||
| Ryan Brasier | 4 | 0 | 5.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 43% | .143 | 3.6 | |||
| Heath Hembree | 4 | 0 | 2.2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 6.75 | 44% | .667 | 16.9 | |||
| Joe Kelly | 4 | 0 | 2.2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 16.88 | 55% | .455 | 6.8 | |||
| Craig Kimbrel | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0.00 | 33% | .167 | 16.6 | |
| Robby Scott | 1 | 0 | 2.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9.00 | 29% | .333 | 9.0 | |||
| Tyler Thornburg | 2 | 0 | 2.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 60% | .400 | 13.5 | |||
| Brandon Workman | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3.1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0.00 | 44% | .333 | 10.8 |
Is this the at-bat of the year? 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZdMhUdWvza— MLB (@MLB) July 13, 2018
❌ gave it to 'em pic.twitter.com/VOjTYY6S7k— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) July 14, 2018
The Red Sox are 4.5 games ahead of the Yankees, their largest lead of the season.— Red Sox Notes (@SoxNotes) July 15, 2018
The Sox have won 12 of their last 13 games and are 17-3 in their last 20.
This is the first time since 2007 that Boston enters the All-Star break with MLB’s best record (68-30, .694).
The @RedSox are off to a historic start. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/hiDUBOI235— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) July 19, 2018
Red Sox lead the league again in getting out on the bases (42) but this year the outrage is minimal— Boston Sports Info (@bostonsportsinf) July 15, 2018
Who are the culprits?
details
bold is is team leader pic.twitter.com/SvAXWrbNdy
Xander Bogaerts leads the majors with 3 grand slams. The only Red Sox player ever to hit more than 3 in a season is Babe Ruth, who hit 4 in 1919.— Red Sox Notes (@SoxNotes) July 15, 2018
This is the first time the Red Sox have ever featured 4 pitchers with 10+ wins before the All-Star break (Porcello-11, Rodriguez-11, Price-10, Sale-10). No MLB team had done that since the 1977 Angels also had four 10-game winners before the break.— Red Sox Notes (@SoxNotes) July 13, 2018
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