Red Sox 3, Orioles 1

 

The Red Sox win their four straight and complete a sweep of the Orioles! 

Another pitching masterpiece by Tolle, who struck out 12 Baltimore batters in six innings and gave up only one run.  Eli White homered in the second to score the only three Boston runs of the game. While it's great that the Red Sox pitchers have held the Orioles  to one or no runs the last three games, we need a more consistent offense than one scoring play a game if we're going to be serious about the playoffs.

The Yankees lost yesterday because they suck, so Boston (79-65) is once again within 2½ games of the top Wild Card spot - so close, they can almost just reach out and grab it. Tampa Bay lost, too, and are now 6½ games ahead of the Sox in first place, but with only 18 games left to the season, Boston should forget about winning the AL East and focus on the Wild Card race instead. The Red Sox' path to the World Series does not run through a division championship but goes from the Wild Card series to the ALCS to the big show.

The Red Sox have two "easy" series left against teams below .500 (both at home, too), and then four "hard" series against teams over .500 with playoff aspirations of their own, and half of those are on the road. Fortunately, considering all of the players currently doing time on the 10-day IL, the next two series are the "easy" ones, starting with the L.A. Angels (54-89) this afternoon (1:35 pm) at Fenway.

Brayan Bello (5-7, 5.07) starts today without the prophylactic luxury of a separate starter for the first inning. Bello has been spectacular as a reliever, even if he comes on as early as the second inning, and a first-inning disaster as a starter. Psychiatrists will spend decades trying to figure out why. Bello is a career 1-2 against the Angels in four starts, and the last time he played them, back on June 3 of last year, he gave up three runs in the third inning in a 4-3 L.A. win.

The Angels will start righty Grayson Rodriguez (4-6, 6.03). The last time Rodriguez pitched to Boston (May 28, 2024), he was with Baltimore and Abreu homered off him, Duran hit an RBI double, and good ol' Rafael Devers hit a pair of RBI singles. 

It's essential that Boston wins or even sweeps these next two series to build as much of a cushion as possible for that final "hard" stretch to end the season.