Hey, it was just two or three weeks ago when Minnesota brought their five game losing streak to town...

The Red Sox are pretty good at scoring runs, but their offense has been far more effective in the famous Friendly Confines. The Red Sox are scoring 5.52 Runs per Game in Fenway, and just 4.13 on the road. The HRs and BBs are about  the same - they just don't get base hits (.289 BAVG at Fenway, .228 on the road.) They really have just five good hitters. One is DH Justin Turner, and the other four all bat left-handed: third baseman Rafael Devers and the three outfielders, Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran, and Alex Verdugo. And yet, as a team, the Red Sox hit LHP about as well as they hit RHP, which seems odd. (Well, Devers and Yoshida don't really have big platoon splits, Duran usually sits against LH pitching, and whatever Verdugo loses against southpaws Turner picks up.)

The Red Sox give up just as many runs as they score - only Kansas City and Oakland have allowed more, and we're not too sure how serious those teams are about playing competitive baseball. The Red Sox have allowed quite a few more runs at the Friendly Confines, although there isn't a whole lot of difference in the opposition's batting lines: .253/.328/.425 at Fenway, .254/.305/.436 on the road. Nick Pivetta and Corey Kluber both began the year in the rotation. Both posted ERAs above 6.00 and were sent to the bullpen. Kluber has since been shut down with a shoulder problem, and who saw that coming? Also on the IL with a shoulder problem is Chris Sale, and who saw that coming?  And because they're the Boston Red Sox and don't deserve nice things, they've also lost starter Tanner Houck, who was hit in the face by a line drive two weeks ago. Houck, who despite being a Red Sock person surely didn't deserve that, just underwent surgery that inserted a plate into the right side of his face. Yikes. Young Brayan Bello has been their best starter - the Jays will miss him - along with veteran LH James Paxton. After starting a grand total of six (6) games over the last three seasons, Paxton has shaken off the rust and has been pitching very well indeed.

As you probably remember, the Jays went into Fenway at the beginning of May and things went very, very badly.

The Story So Far

Mon 1 May: Toronto 5 at Boston 6 - Jose Berrios took a 3-2 lead into the sixth inning, but homers from Duran and Valdez drove him from the hill (we all thought Schneider's hook was a little slow) and put Boston ahead 5-3. The Jays tied it up in the eighth, but Verdugo greeted Jordan Romano with a walkoff homer leading off the bottom of the ninth.

Tue 2 May: Toronto 6 at Boston 7 - The Sox took a 3-0 lead against Yusei Kikuchi, but the Jays jumped all over Tanner Houck for six runs in the fifth inning, Varsho's three run HR being the big blast. Boston got two runs back in their half, and tied it when Wong homered leading off the sixth against Zach Pop. Two innings later, Wong was leading off the eighth against Erik Swanson, and it was deja vu all over again - Wong's second of the game (fourth of his career) provided the final margin of victory.

Wed 3 May: Toronto 3 at Boston 8 - Solo homers from Varsho and Guerreo staked Alek Manoah to an early lead, but after breezing through the Boston lineup first time around, it slowly fell apart. Boston got two runs on four hits, a wild pitch, and Manoah's own error to tie it up in the fourth  The Jays retook the lead in the fifth, but after a Chapman error Manoah hit a batter, gave up three more hits, and Boston put three runs on the board. They then tacked up single runs against each of Bass, Richards, and Pearson.


Matchups

Fri 30 June - Paxton (3-1, 3.19) vs Berrios (8-5, 3.60)
Sat 1 July - Crawford (2-4, 4.01) vs Kikuchi (7-2, 3.75)
Sun 2 July - Whitlock (4-3, 5.15) vs Gausman (7-4, 3.01)