Red Sox: Expect fireworks at Fenway with Colorado Rockies in town

It will be a major disappointment if the Red Sox do not hammer the Rockies for at least 20 runs in the three-game series that starts at Fenway Park on Tuesday (7 p.m., NESN). Boston’s offense has been that good and Colorado’s pitching staff has been that bad.

The Red Sox lead the Majors in runs scored (256), they lead the Majors in hits (464), they are ninth in MLB in homers (53) and they lead MLB in on-base percentage (.359).

As for the Rockies pitching staff – a good chunk of the reason for their failures can be attributed to the fact that they play in the high altitude of Denver (imagine if the Red Sox’ lineup played in that ballpark for 81 games?). At the same time, Rockies’ hurlers are far from lights out away from Coors Field. Last Thursday in St. Louis they gave up 13 runs in one game. Their team ERA on the season is an ugly 4.82. Only the Twins (4.91) and Reds (5.57) have worse team ERAs.

This could very well be a repeat of two weeks ago when the Red Sox posted three double-digit run games in three wins over Oakland. The Sox beat the A’s 14-7, 13-5 and 13-3. Against Cleveland last Saturday they posted nine runs and on Sunday against the Indians they crossed the plate five times. In other words, a game in which the Sox score less than five runs these days is considered an off-night.

Finding a weak spot in the Red Sox’ order has become an impossible task for opposing pitching staffs. Look at the Sox’ batting leaders and there are different names across the board. Xander Bogaerts leads the team in batting average (.346), David Ortiz leads the team in home runs (11) and RBIs (37), and Jackie Bradley Jr. leads the team in OBP (.413). In the lineup that John Farrell trotted out Sunday against Cleveland, only catcher Christian Vazquez had an OBP of below .320.

“They show up to play every single day,” Farrell said about the players in his every day lineup. “We get just relentless at-bats and David continues to [hit]. His timing is outstanding. The power is obvious. There’s just so many hard hit balls. Top to bottom we’ve been getting just a very, very good offensive approach.”

Sox hurlers

David Price (6-1, 5.53 ERA) will look to make it three strong starts in a row Tuesday when he takes on a potent Rockies offense, which is led by Mark Reynolds (.323 batting average) and Nolan Arenado (14 homers, 34 RBIs). Price has allowed just three runs total in his last two starts.

Steven Wright is slated to start for the Sox on Wednesday against the Rockies while Clay Buchholz will look to break out of his funk on Thursday.