The Red Sox have not been swept this season, though this past weekend’s ugly series against the atrocious White Sox at Fenway should count as something close. The Red Sox wasted a gem of a performance by Chris Sale on Friday night, losing 1-0 to Chicago while collecting just three hits. David Price and the Sox were victorious on Saturday with a 4-2 win, but on Sunday the offensive problems from Friday night reared their ugly head again as Boston mustered just two runs in a 5-2 loss.
On Sunday, seven out of nine Red Sox players in the starting batting order recorded a hit but timely hitting was an issue. Friday night only three Red Sox batters recorded a hit – Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers.
Throughout the season, the Red Sox have thrived on cluster hitting in that one or two players will carry the load offensively with a multi-hit game. No one was really swinging a hot bat over the weekend. JD Martinez had a pair of hits in the win Saturday, as did Christian Vazquez. But other than that, it was a startlingly quiet weekend on Jersey Street from the Boston bats.
The Sox will need that to change in a hurry as the Yankees overtook them in the AL East standings by a game over the weekend.
More dregs
The Sox were unable to take advantage of a weak opponent at home this past weekend, but their soft schedule continues this week as they’ll face division rival Baltimore – which owns the definitive worst record in baseball at 19-45.
The Orioles will trot Dylan Bundy out to the mound Monday (7 p.m., NESN) at Camden Yards to face the Sox. Bundy had one of the worst starts in the history of MLB earlier this season when he gave up four home runs to the Royals in the first inning and left the game without getting one out.
Since that time Bundy has gathered himself as he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in a game since. Still, that’s a microcosm of how the Orioles’ season has gone thus far. The Blue Jays just completed a four-game sweep of the O’s in Toronto this past weekend.
The Sox will send Steven Wright (2-0, 1.57 ERA) to the mound to face the O’s on Monday. Wright was sensational in his first start of the year last week against Detroit, allowing just two hits over seven innings.
