Red Sox 10, Rays 0

 

Are you fucking kidding me? Ten in a row! And with today's win coming at home, where the Sox were a dismal 17-27, and after four days off for the All-Start break, and against the Rays, the first-place team in the AL East, at that. And not just a "win." but a dominating 10-0 shutout of Tampa Bay. 

Holy smokes! We really are going to the World Series, baby!

Yoshida homered in the fourth and Narvaez homered in the seventh. Narvaez also hit RBI singles in the first and sixth, and Duran in the first and sixth. And in the sixth, in addition to Narvaez and Duran, Cheng, Rafaela, and Durbin also had RBIs. Eight out of the nine batters had at least one base hit today.

Big Jake Bennett allowed only one hit in six innings and struck out three. Gamboa kept the shoutout going for the next three innings, and Boston started the second half of the season - and today's doubleheader - with a  win. Tenth straight, the longest streak of this season and tying their longest streak of last year. With their tenth win, the Sox earned the coveted X-Wins Award. 

Rookie Eduardo Rivera (0-0) will start tonight's game against the Rays. Rivera's only pitched seven innings this year in two games, both against New York teams (Yankees and Mets) and has yet to give up his first run, so his ERA is a perfect 0.00. He'll be opposite Tampa's Mason Englert (0-2, 3.82), who pitched 3⅓ innings of relief in the Rays' 2-0 loss to Boston back on May 8.   

A win tonight would put the Sox (47-48) at .500 for the first time this season. They were 14 games underwater as recently as June 18 of this year, not even a full month ago. Will they make it 11 straight tonight? Will they clinch at least a series tie with the Rays? It's a high-stakes game with two unlikely starting pitchers, so anything could happen.