G94: Red Sox 4, Rangers 2

Rangers - 000 000 020 - 2  9  2
Red Sox - 010 030 00x - 4 11  0

Chris Sale (7-6-0-1-12, 110) continued his masterful run of pitching since June 8. In his last seven starts, Sale has allowed five runs in 48 innings (0.94 ERA), while walking 10 and striking out 78. He is routinely hitting 98-100 with his fastball. Tonight, he also had a devastating slider, diving down and inside to both left- and right-handed hitters.

A couple of Texas errors led to Boston's first run and J.D. Martinez's double in the fifth made it 3-0. And after having zero triples coming into this series, Xander Bogaerts has hit one in each of the last two games. Tonight's three-bagger was a flare to center that fell between - and rolled beyond - two outfielders who nearly collided.

There was a bit of a scare in the eighth inning when Heath Hembree allowed one run and left the bases loaded with two outs for Craig Kimbrel. The Red Sox closer walked Robinson Chirinos on four pitches to force in a run (though the first ball was an obvious strike). He went to 2-2 on Joey Gallo before striking him out with a high fastball at 99. Kimbrel was more himself in the ninth, staying ahead of every hitter and striking out the side.

The win gave the Red Sox their second nine-game winning streak of the season (the first one was March 30-April 10). They also have an eight-game streak (April 12-20). The Red Sox's lead remained at 3.5 games as the Yankees blanked the Orioles 9-0.

Andrew Benintendi went 2-for-4 and now has six consecutive multi-hit games. The last two Red Sox batters to have multiple hits in six straight games did it at almost the exact same time: Xander Bogaerts (May 9-14, 2016) and Jackie Bradley (May 8-13, 2016).

The Red Sox all-time record (or at least since 1908) is nine games:

Roy Johnson - June 17-23, 1934
Jim Rice - May 1-9, 1978
Kevin Youkilis - May 20-29, 2007

Four players have had streaks of eight games, all between 1909 and 1940, with Ted Williams being the last one.

The Red Sox are also the only team with three players who have at least 30 multi-hit games this season (Benintendi, Mookie Betts, and J.D. Martinez).

Bogaerts singled to lead off the second and went to second when Colon committed an error on a pickup throw. Brock Holt's groundout put Bogaerts on third. Eduardo Nunez hit a popup to shallow right-center. Rougned Odor called for it and staggered around. The ball to the grass beside him and Bogaerts scored.

In the fifth, Betts and Benintendi both singled with one out. Martinez ripped a double into the left field corner and both runners scored. Colon struck out Mitch Moreland, but Bogaerts lofted his triple to medium-depth center and neither Gallo (LF) nor DeShields (CF) could grab it.

Two tweets from Alex Speier:

Chris Sale now has 3 streaks of at least 5 straight 10K games since becoming a starter in 2012. The rest of MLB combined has 4 in that time.

Pitchers with multiple career streaks of 11+ strikeouts in at least 5 straight games:
Randy Johnson (3)
Pedro Martinez (2)
Chris Sale (2)

Thanks to Baseball Reference's Play Index, I can expand that list to all pitchers who have multiple career streaks of 11+ strikeouts in at least 5 straight games:

Randy Johnson (3)
Pedro Martinez (2)
Chris Sale (2)
Corey Kluber (1)
J.R. Richard (1)
Nolan Ryan (1)

Johnson also had eight streaks of at least five straight starts with 10+ strikeouts. Pedro had six.

Bartolo Colon / Chris Sale

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Moreland, 1B
Bogaerts, SS
Holt, 2B
Nunez, 3B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

The Red Sox called up lefty Robby Scott and sent Jalen Beeks down.

Dustin Pedroia will continue his rehab in Arizona. He understands that he may not be back in the Red Sox's lineup until 2019:

There's no timetables. I can't control how the human body heals. ... It's going to happen. But the timeframe I expected and the team expected, it's going to be a little longer than that. ... I can't do anything about time.

The Legendary Bartolo Colon has been pitching in the major leagues for 21 years. He has pitched for 11 teams, including the Red Sox (seven games in 2008). The Big Sexy can do it all.

Pitch:

Hit:

Field:

Take a 102-mph line drive to the belly from less than 60 feet away (and then calmly throw the batter out at first, laugh and shrug his shoulders, and get on with his work):

Also: On April 19, 2012, Colon threw 38 consecutive strikes. ... For more than three innings - the fifth, sixth, seventh, and into the eighth - Colon did not throw a pitch that was called a ball by the plate umpire.

Two months ago, Colon turned 45:

He is older than six current MLB managers (Cora, Cash, Hinch, Kapler, Callaway, Green)

He has struck out six current MLB managers (Boone, Cora, Molitor, Hinch, Kapler, Matheny)

He has struck out...
Paul Molitor, born August 22, 1956
Rafael Devers, born October 24, 1996

You should also read this oral history of Colon's home run on May 7, 2016.

Back to 2018! On May 4, Colon allowed only five hits to the Red Sox over seven innings. But four of those hits were home runs - and Boston won 5-1.

Two of those four taters were hit by Rafael Devers, who was only 23 weeks old when Colon made his major league debut in April 1997. ... Andrew Benintendi was still three months shy of his third birthday, Eduardo Rodriguez was about to turn four, and both Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts were 4½ (they were born six days apart). Chris Sale was 8½ years old.

Today, Rafael Devers is more than two years younger (21 years, 260 days) than Colon was when he debuted with Cleveland (23 years, 315 days).

Chris Sale has allowed only one run in his last 21 innings. ... He has a 1.10 ERA in his last six starts, with 10+ strikeouts in five of those games (66 strikeouts in 41 innings).

AL East: MFY/BAL, 7 PM. ... The Red Sox lead the division by 3.5 games.