It's silly to get wrapped up in one game or one win over the course of a baseball season.
Thursday night the Red Sox blew their game against the White Sox thanks to a walk-off homer. Friday night they bounce back with a 6-1 win in Chicago. They could now win 10 in a row, or maybe a losing streak is starting Saturday. This is the danger of trying to analyze each of these 162 games. (For a complete recap of the Red Sox win, click here.)
But, all of that said, it's fair to look at the Sox' latest win and separate it at least a little bit.
When you have Chris Sale doing what he did, and the image of both Michael Chavis and Rafael Devers hitting home runs than that deserves a closer look.
Start with Sale.
Alex Cora suggested this was the time of year you would start seeing an uptick in his ace and he was right. Sale turned in perhaps his best outing of the season, not allowing a run over six innings while giving up just three hits. And after his 10 strikeouts, the lefty has now managed 28 punch-outs over his last three outings.
Sale's fastball averaged just about what it did in his seventh start a year ago (93.1 mph). From then on -- until the shoulder injury -- he wouldn't sit below 95 mph the rest of his 2018 starts. But perhaps most noteworthy was how he used the heater.
After throwing his slider significantly more than the fastball in each of his previous three starts Sale came back and used each pitch equally (tossing 38 sliders and 37 fastballs). Sale is also getting significantly more swings and misses on the heater hardly getting any in his first four outings.
They knew they needed this Sale, not only against the White Sox but against everyone.
"Like I said, I’ve been grinding," he told reporters. "I know it hasn’t looked pretty up to this point but that’s sports, that’s baseball. Sometimes you figure it out and you ride that wave and sometimes you’re out there in the middle of the ocean trying to find it, so not only myself but a lot of people in here have helped me get to this point and obviously I’m happy with how we got it done tonight, and hopefully I can keep riding that wave and finding that groove and continue to build off of this and keep it going."
It was latest in a welcome turnaround for a starting rotation that had been dragging the Red Sox down throughout the initial few weeks of the new season. Since April 24, however, the Sox starters carry the third-lowest ERA (2.79) and fourth-lowest batting average against in the majors (.201). They've also given up just four home runs.
The perceived strength of this team is once again becoming the strength of this team.
Then there is the promise of what the two young infielders offered.
"I’m not looking to hit home runs," Devers told reporters after boosting his OPS to .778. "I’m looking to have good AB’s, stay disciplined in the zone, and make hard contact even though occasionally I still swing the bat hard, I’m just looking to make contact and if it’s a home run, it’s a home run."
It was the 10th time the Red Sox have come away with two or more home runs (with their record surprisingly sitting at 5-5 in such scenarios). But this time around it was who hit them that should have raised some eyebrows.
The Sox are still sitting at three games under .500 (15-18) and 6 1/2 games out of first place, but this seemingly innocuous win on a cold night in Chicago might mean something more than most.