Red Sox 4, White Sox 0

The mighty Boston Red Sox have clinched the win in their ninth straight series, earning them another of the highly coveted (lol) Sweat Dissolves Water trophies. The last time the Sox won nine consecutive series was between August 4 and September 15, 1912. That year, they finished with a record of 105-47 and won the World Series, defeating the New York Giants.

Last night, Boston won the second of the three-game homestand against the White Sox in a 4-0 shutout for their seventh back-to-back win. They're now 9-1 in their last ten games and officially once again the hottest team in baseball.  Wilyer Abreu homered in the third inning, his 20th home run of the season. Willson Contreras, Andruw Monasterio, and Caleb Durbin all had RBI base hits too. Sonny Gray went six innings, striking out eight and giving up only three hits and no runs. The bullpen (Guerrero, Whitlock, and  Morán) struck out another six over the final three innings.

Contreras' .288 batting average is fifth highest in the American League, and Rafaela's .287 is sixth. Gray's 2.78 ERA is fifth best in the AL among qualified starters. Seven straight wins, nine in the last ten games. Nine series wins. Eleven games over .500. And to make it all the sweeter, the Yankees lost last night, so the Red Sox are now only one game back from second-place New York. They're up by six games in the Wild Card standings. 

Tonight, Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15) faces off against Chicago's Luis Castillo (3-9, 5.06). The Red Sox will win and complete their second straight series sweep. And with the anemic A's (45-69) on the schedule next, it could well be three sweeps and 11 consecutive wins. 

Way back on April 16, after the Red Sox beat the Twins, 9-5, I said, and I quote, "We're going to the World Series, and that's a guarantee!" And friendly reminder that I called it correctly on June 26, after the first game of the sweep of the Yankees, when I said, "The greatest comeback in sports history began last evening. We're going to the World Series, baby!" And of course I said it throughout the epic 15-game win streak as that greatest of all comebacks did, in fact, materialize. 

So I'll repeat it now: World Series, baby. We're going to the World Series!