Red Sox 10, Padres 2

 

So the Red Sox have to fly out to San Diego to play the Padres (64-51) on the road? So former Boston slugger Xander Bogaerts is now batting .269 for San Diego, with nine home runs? So former Boston pitcher Nick Pivetta is starting the first game of this series with an 11-3 record and 2.94 ERA? 

No problem. The Sox scored five runs on five hits against Pivetta, including a Wilyer Abreu homer run, and Bogaerts went 0-3 as Boston wins the game, 10-2. The Padres' Manny Machado went 1-for-3 at bat as Buehler pitched six scoreless innings, fanning four, and Yoshida hit his second home run of the season en route to a three-RBI night. Buehler gets the win, his seventh, and Pivetta takes the loss, his fourth. There's no stopping these Red Sox!

To make things even sweeter, Toronto lost to the Dodgers in L.A. and the Astros beat the Yankees in the Bronx, so Boston is now only three games back from first, and 3½ ahead of third-place New York. Even the New York Fucking Times is predicting the Yankees don't make the playoffs this year, speculating "Aaron Boone probably gets fired and the team wastes another elite year of Aaron Judge. Womp." 

But no time to count unhatched chickens. Tonight, Giolito (8-2, 3.57) faces off against Michael King (4-2, 2.59). The last time King faced the Sox, a June 29, 2024, 11-1, San Diego romp, he held Boston to one run on five hits over six innings, although that one run was a Jarren Duran homer. Let's see if Duran has another home run up his sleeve for tonight.