The final game of the first half of the season for the Red Sox summed up how the entire first half went: beating up on a bad team.
With the game tied at two in the fifth, Sandy Leon and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit back-to-back doubles to give the Red Sox the lead for good in their 5-2 over the Blue Jays Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Even with their starter, Brian Johnson, not being able to make it out of the fifth inning, the Red Sox were able to come away with the win thanks to their high-powered offense.
(Click here for a complete game recap.)
With the win, the Red Sox finished the first half of the season 38 games over .500 (68-30) and thus have the highest winning percentage in the majors. This is the first time the team will enter the All-Star break with the best record in the majors since 2007. In addition, this marks the first time the Red Sox are 38 games over .500 since 1949. The Yankees lost, so the Red Sox will enter the break with a 4.5-game lead in the AL East, which is their largest of the season.
"I've been saying it, it's all them," manager Alex Cora said. "They've done a good job preparing and digesting the information, and they're the ones that go out and perform. I think we've been very consistent throughout the season, and I still feel that we can be better. There's a few things that we can improve, and that's a good thing. We've still got some challenges in front of us. It's not like because we had a good first halfof the season, it's granted that we're going ot go all the way. We've got, what, 64 more games in the regular season? We're going to keep playing the way we're playing and put pressure on people, and we win, we lose, we turn the page. Keep moving. Keep moving. But we're in a good place. I mean, I'm proud of what they have accomplished."
While the Red Sox are certainly a good team, the other reason for their outstanding record is the poor play around baseball. This also means the team's recent hot streak shouldn't be going away once the second half begins.
The three teams the Red Sox play coming out of the break are a combined 66 games below .500 (going into Sunday). They won't really be tested until the final two days of July and first few in August when they host the Phillies for a two-game set and then the Yankees for a four-game weekend series. The Red Sox probably won't be able to keep their current streak going as they will enter the break winners of 12 of their last 13 games, but it should be pretty close given their opponents coming up — the Tigers, Orioles and Twins.
"Just continue to compete and go out there every single day and focus on winning and have that be everyone's mindset, and we'll be fine," Jackie Bradley Jr. said.
This also means either the Red Sox or Yankees will be one of the Wild Card teams after a likely 100-win season and have the potential to be eliminated in the one-game playoff.
It's hard to imagine the Red Sox keeping this pace up, but when looking at who they will play to open the second half of the year, it's certainly not impossible.
The Red Sox are 14-2 this season when Xander Bogaerts homers.
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