G111: Red Sox 4, White Sox 1

White Sox - 100 000 000 - 1  8  1
Red Sox   - 220 000 00x - 4  5  1

Drew Pomeranz (6.1-7-1-1-8, 100) lowered his season ERA to 3.36 with a strong outing on Saturday night. The Red Sox got their runs early, on two-run home runs by Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley.

Boston's lead in the AL East remained at three games because the Yankees beat Cleveland 2-1. The Rays lost to the Brewers 3-0 and fell 5.5 GB.

Pomeranz gave up a home run to the first batter of the game when Tim Anderson hit his second offering out of the park to center. Boston erased the White Sox's lead in their first time at bat. An infield error allowed Brock Holt to reach base and Benintendi popped a 2-0 pitch to right for his 13th dong of the year. In the second inning, Mitch Moreland doubled with one out and Bradley homered to right with two down, giving Boston a 4-1.

The White Sox had two baserunners with two outs in both the third and fourth innings, but Pomeranz stranded all of the runners.

Chicago hurt itself with mistakes on the bases in each of the last three innings.

In the seventh, Nicky Delmonico and Alen Hanson singled, and Pomeranz departed with only one out. Blaine Boyer got ahead of Anderson 0-2 before he lined to right. Mookie Betts alertly fired the ball to Moreland at first and doubled off Hanson.

Jose Abreu singled with one out in the eighth and thought he'd try for a double. Benintendi threw him out. (The initial "safe" call was corrected after the Red Sox asked for a review.)

In the ninth, Craig Kimbrel hit Leury Garcia, the leadoff batter, with an 0-2 pitch. Kimbrel struck out Yoan Moncada. With Delmonico at the plate, Kimbrel picked off Garcia and he iced the Red Sox's fifth straight win by freezing Delmonico with strike three.

In addition to his home run, Benintendi also singled and walked. His 57 RBI are second on the team behind Betts (69).

In the NL: The Dodgers have won 43 of their last 50 games. That's the best 50-game streak since the 1912 New York Giants also went 43-7 from May 6 to July 3. The Dodgers are now 78-32, which is a 115-win pace. The major league record for most wins in a season is 116, set by the 2001 Mariners. who were 80-30 after 110 games.

James Shields / Drew Pomeranz

Betts, RF
Holt, 2B
Benintendi, LF
Nunez, SS
Devers, 3B
Young, DH
Moreland, 1B
Vazquez, C
Bradley, CF

Pomeranz faced the White Sox back on May 31 and had his best start of the season (7-7-1-0-8, 108). He has a 2.33 ERA over his last nine starts, dating back to June 16, and he's pitched at least six innings in seven of those starts.

Small Game James has a 9.00 ERA over his last five starts and opponents pounded him to the tune of a 1.035 OPS. This is a useless stat, but it's fun to mention: Shields has a 5.42 ERA in 14 starts at Fenway Park. (He's faced the Red Sox only twice since 2013.)

The Red Sox may bring Joe Kelly (left hamstring strain) back from the disabled list today.

A Q&A with Rafael Devers:

Who was your favorite player when you were a kid?
Robinson Cano has always been my favorite player because of the way he plays. I have always been impressed with the swing he has and how humble he looks on the field. But my favorite team was always Boston because I loved watching Manny and Pedro when they were here; I would sit with my dad to watch games. ...

What kind of third baseman do you want to be?
Like Manny Machado right now because of the way he fields the ball; he can stop them all. I would also like to be like Beltre, because Beltre is also a player who has been very well-known for his bat as well as his defense. ...

I know you have to have heard that you look like you're 12 instead of 20... you look so young!
Yes, that's why they gave me my nickname. They call me "Carita" (Baby Face) for that very reason. In my neighborhood when I played vitilla [baseball with bottle caps], there was always this guy who would say 'look at this one with that fresh face,' and from then on I was "Carita." ...

So Devers thinks Cano looks humble on the field? That's certainly ... interesting. Later, Devers says he admires Cano because he "plays aggressively" and "always runs hard". Okay. There's got to be another Robinson Cano out there that I don't know about and that Devers really likes. The one I am familiar with non-chalantly fields grounders (which sometimes become errors because of his less-than-attentive nature) and often casually runs to first after hitting the ball.

And it's not just me. Yankee fans noticed Cano's lack of hustle as far back as 2005. He was benched for lack of hustle in 2008. In 2010, Newsday reported Cano had put the "lazy" label behind him. Actually, he didn't. Yankees announcer Michael Kay called out Cano for not hustling in 2013. Cano was criticized for not hustling in 2014, and the Yankees' hitting coach said Cano had been spoken to a number of times. ("If somebody told me I was a dog, I'd have to fix that. ... Robbie chose not to.") Seattle's first base coach ripped Cano for lack of effort in 2015. Cano showed a lack of attention on the bases in 2015. ... Please, Rafael, don't emulate Cano too much, alright?

WEEI's Rob Bradford is (perhaps) starting to understand these Red Sox: "The overall vibe emanating from Fenway these days are that the Red Sox are in a pretty good spot." ... But Bradford also spends four paragraphs warning giddy fans that while "everything seems peaches and cream at the moment ... things can take a turn in a hurry". (I know one thing that will not take a turn, in a hurry or otherwise: the gloom-and-doom attitude of various Boston sportswriters.)

Also: Bartolo Colon pitched a complete game for the Twins last night. When he walked out for the ninth, LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" played over the PA. Colon, 44, has now thrown a complete game for eight different major league teams, something only two other pitchers have done (since 1900): Mike Morgan (nine teams) and Doyle Alexander (eight teams). Last night's win at Target Field gave Colon a victory in 40 major league parks. He joins Randy Johnson (43), Jamie Moyer (42), and Pedro Martinez (40) as the only pitchers to do that since 1900. (The all-time record holder is Tim Keefe, who recorded a win in 47 different stadiums from 1880-93.)

AL East: The slumping Yankees are 3 GB. The Rays are 4.5 GB. ... NYY/CLE and MIL/TBR.