The Red Sox suddenly find themselves with an offensive juggernaut
The bad news for the Red Sox in their 11-6 win over the Rangers Friday night was Kutter Crawford continuing to give up home runs. More specifically, the Red Sox starting pitcher allowed four more homers, making it 12 in the last three games (a new record).
Fortunately for the Sox, the timing for Crawford's downturn has been impeccable. Case in point, this series-opening win.
If there was ever a time to try and weather the kind of home run storm Crawford has been experiencing it is now. That's thanks to a Red Sox offensive that has burst out of the post-All-Star break and become baseball's most proficient group of bats.
Since returning from the break two weeks ago, the Red Sox boast the best offensive in all of MLB, totaling .304 batting average and .908 OPS (both tops in the majors). And, most importantly, no club has scored as many runs as the Sox over that span, plating 87, which happens to be 57 more than the lowly White Sox.
The individual numbers have been off the charts, with the win over the Rangers only adding to the equation.
Hitting home runs this time around were Wilyer Abreu, Rafaeal Devers and Ceddanne Rafaela. Let's start with those three since the All-Star break ...
Abreu: .333 batting average, 1.031 OPS, two homers, nine RBI.
Devers: .385 BA, 1.152 OPS, two homers, 11 RBI.
Rafaela: .327 BA, .817 OPS, two homers, nine RBI.
Also standing out with multiple-hit games in the victory were Connor Wong (4 hits) and Jarren Duran (2). Their totals in the last two weeks ...
Wong: .289 BA, .849 OPS, two homers.
Duran: .356 BA, 1.127 OPS, three homers, 12 RBI.
There's more ...
Tyler O'Neill: .354 BA, 1.220 OPS, six homers, 14 RBI.
Masa Yoshida: .330 BA, .890 OPS, one homer, 10 RBI.
Dom Smith: .250 BA, .852 OPS.
Romy Gonzalez: .355 BA, .975 OPS.
You get the point. There aren't really any easy outs in this lineup right now, which has been a necessity considering some roller-coaster-riding with the pitching staff.
The Red Sox are just 5-8 since that first game in Los Angeles on July 19 despite collecting nine or more hits in all but one of the contests. The Sox' pitchers have a collective 6.08 OPS in those 13 games, with the starters' ERA sitting at 5.58.
But the reality is that this dynamic should be a familiar one for the Red Sox considering how the flip side of the coin - the pitching - carried them through the first few months. The challenge is to find a way to put it all together so that this two-game deficit in the Wild Card race doesn't get any larger.
Friday did offer glimpse of increased optimism.
Newly-acquired relievers Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia each pitched a scoreless innings. Nick Sogard provided one of the season's top feel-good moments, coming through with a clutch two-run single for his first major league hit. And Crawford did ultimately go far enough to pick up the win.
