It's not a pace that can be maintained over the course of a season, but right now the Boston Red Sox are putting up totals that look more like the box scores from lacrosse games than baseball games. For the fourth consecutive night the Red Sox hit double digits in runs scored, beating the Houston Astros 11-1 at Fenway Park.
Mookie Betts had a three-run homer, Xander Bogaerts added a two-run shot, and the longest current hitting streak in the majors continues, now at eighteen games for Jackie Bradley, Jr., who singled twice. Oh, and David Price had a great night on the mound as well. Price has been scuffling most of this season, his win-loss record at 5-1 pretty deceiving, because the five wins are due mostly to the great run support he's received from his offense. The earned run average has been a frightening three full runs over his career average of 3.18. Even yielding just the one run last night, Price's ERA stands at six and that's why it was encouraging to see him go six and two thirds while striking out twelve last night. It doesn't seem so important now but when the Red Sox bats eventually do cool off for a spell, Boston will need Price to step up as the ace and stopper of the staff he's being paid handsomely to be. For now, though, it's all about the Red Sox lineup pounding out hits and runs like Steph Curry draining three-pointers. The Red Sox go for their sixth win in a row tonight with the guy who's been the real ace of their staff so far taking the hill, knuckleballer Steven Wright, whose ERA of 1.52 has him among the top five pitchers in all of baseball in that category.
In the Bronx, NY Yankees third baseman Chase Headley ended a home run drought that stretched back to last year, hitting a two-run shot that powered the Yankees to a 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals. Didi Gregorius also had a two-run homer and Nathan Eovaldi got the win, limiting the damage of eight hits yielded over five innings of work. The Yanks end up taking two out of three from the slumping defending World Series champs, but face a tougher test tonight when the White Sox and their ace Chris Sale come to the Stadium. On paper this looks like a mismatch, with the Yankees' Luis Severino still winless at 0-5 on the year with an ERA over six, and Sale yet to lose, coming in with a 7-0 record and a 1.79 ERA, but fortunately for the Yankees they don't play the game on paper.
There's another pretty good lefty on paper and on the field out in Los Angeles and last night Clayton Kershaw showed why he's still one of the best in the game, shutting out the NY Mets in a 5-0 win. Kershaw gave up just three hits all night and struck out thirteen, getting help on offense from Yasmani Grandal, who hit a three-run homer to help L.A. gain a split of their four-game series with the defending National League champs. Bartolo Colon took the loss for the Mets, getting roughed up for four runs in the first inning as he drops to 3-2 on the year.
The Stanley Cup playoffs are down to the final four and the series to watch in the conference finals is out west. It'll feature two teams trying to shake the monkeys of great regular seasons followed by post-season disappointment off their backs. The San Jose Sharks routed the Nashville Predators 5-0 in game seven at the shark tank last night, and now they'll tangle with the St. Louis Blues for the right to reach to the Stanley Cup finals. Neither of these franchises have ever won a Stanley Cup, although the Blues have been around a lot longer than the Sharks. Should be a fascinating series. The eastern conference finals pit the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have had plenty of Stanley Cup success, against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the Cup once, back in 2004. Game one of that series is tonight in Tampa.
In the NBA playoffs, no grumbling about the refs this time. The Oklahoma City Thunder simply went out and beat the favored San Antonio Spurs 113-99 to wrap up the series in six games. The dynamic duo of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for sixty-five points in the win. Up next for the Thunder is a date with Steph Curry and the defending champion Golden State Warriors, so good luck with that.
