Red Sox 2, Seattle 0

 

Back-to-back shutouts wins for Boston, both by 2-0 scores, and 6th straight win overall. The Sox are 8-2 in their last 10 games, finally closer to first place (back by 5½ games) than to last (6½ ahead of Baltimore), and are now officially in the Wild Card standings, a half game ahead of Minnesota and Seattle.

But after the Raffy trade, it all feel so. . . empty.

Rookie Roman Anthony got his first major-league home run last night, a 414-foot shot to deep right center. Giolito struck out 10 batters over six innings, and the bullpen gave up only one hit over three shut-out innings.  

Yes, but Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts both had RBI base hits in last night's L.A.-San Diego game. You can make yourself crazy by constant "what-if" comparisons, especially after Devers starts with the Giants.

With Triston Casas, Chris Murphy, Masataka Yoshida, Kutter Crawford, Josh Winckowski, and Patrick Sandoval all on the long-term DL, and Wilyer Abreu, Nick Burdi, Jordan Hicks, Justin Slaten, Liam Hendriks, Alex Bregman, and Tanner Houck out for at least the near term, it appears that, without Raffy, we have to put our faith in the hands of rookies like Anthony and the comebacks of grizzled veterans like Giolito.

Tonight, the Sox will start Walker Buehler (5-4, 5.01) against Bryan Woo (5-4, 3.39). Buehler got seven strikeouts over seven innings against Tampa Bay in his last start; Woo struck out eight over six innings the last time he faced the Red Sox (April 24). Game starts 9:40 pm Eastern time.