Those who took the "over" heading into the Red Sox' 2021 season should feel pretty good about their bet right about now.
The preseason lines that predicted the Sox would win in the vicinity of 80 games obviously now seem way off base, with Wednesday night/Thursday morning serving as the latest punctuation.
With their 6-2 win over the Royals -- which included a pair of rain delays, the second of which lasting 1 hour, 50 minutes -- put the Red Sox as the first American League team to 50 wins. And considering that was the officially the halfway mark of the regular season schedule, some simple math would tell you Alex Cora's team is on pace for 100 wins.
“Our expectations are to win the World Series and we’re not even close. We had a great first half and we played well for a while," Cora said. "If you put everything in perspective this month, we didn’t play well and we won 18 games. That’s how good we are. We can get away with mistakes but we hate making mistakes. We have to clean that up and keep getting better. I do believe that we’ve been doing a good job in the last two series being aggressive, running the bases, playing aggressively, playing better defense. Sometimes the starters, they haven’t given us enough innings but the bullpen has been amazing. I think offensively we only struck out once today, right, and it was Marwin (Gonzalez) in the last at-bat. So putting the ball in play, going the other way, walking. Offensively, I think this was our best week and hopefully we can continue to get better.”
It is the 15th time the Red Sox have reached 50 wins in their first 81 games, winning the World Series the last two times the feat was accomplished (in 2007 and 2018).
The win this time was paced by J.D. Martinez's three-run homer and Hunter Renfroe solo shot, an incredible catch from Kiké Hernandez, a solid outing by starter Martin Perez (5 1/3 innings, 2 runs) and continued standout support from the bullpen.
The relievers this time included Brandon Workman, Darwinzon Hernandez, Josh Taylor and Matt Barnes.
Red Sox relievers have not allowed a run in their last four games (13.2 IP), while totaling an 0.39 ERA (1 ER/23.1 IP). They have also stranded their last 16 inherited runners.
With the lead now at three games over second-place Tampa Bay, 7 1/2 over Toronto and, wait for it, 8 1/2 up on the Yankees, life is good for these Red Sox these days.
"Yeah, pretty solid," Cora said. "So far it’s been an outstanding homestand."
