G136: White Sox 6, Red Sox 1

Red Sox   - 000 000 010 - 1  5  0
White Sox - 300 000 30x - 6 14  0

Friday's game in Chicago began in the same fashion as Thursday's series-opener, with the White Sox scoring three times in the first inning. But the rest of the contest was not a carbon copy. After a rain delay of 2:09, there was no late-inning lightning from the Red Sox's bats.

Former Red Sox minor leaguer Michael Kopech drilled Mookie Betts in the left biceps with his first pitch of the night. He then walked Andrew Benintendi on four wide ones. But Boston could not score - and Betts was caught off second and thrown out 1-4.

Yoan Moncada - another Boston prospect included, along with Kopech, in the deal for Chris Sale - hit a two-run homer off Nathan Eovaldi (2-3-3-0-0, 35) in the first. Matt Davidson connected for a three-run dong off Tyler Thornburg in the seventh.

Drew Pomeranz (4-7-0-0-6, 67) took over after the delay in the bottom of the third. ... Benintendi hit his 16th home run in the eighth inning. ... Both Betts and Jackie Bradley threw runners out at the plate.

Nathan Eovaldi / Michael Kopech

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

The Red Sox have scored 24 runs on 26 hits after the sixth inning in their last three games!

The Red Sox (93-42) need to go 13-14 or better over the remaining 27 games to set a new franchise record for wins (the 1912 team finished 105-47-2). To beat that record in 154 games, this team would have to go 13-6, which would give them a record of 106-48 (and eight games left to play).

While in New York, by some stroke of luck, I checked the score of Wednesday night's game on my phone in the middle of the seventh inning, so I saw the entire 11-run explosion.

It was historic. The Red Sox became the first team in major league history to record a hit in 12 consecutive at-bats in one inning:

Eduardo Nunez singled
Ian Kinsler doubled
Blake Swihart singled
Jackie Bradley doubled
Mookie Betts doubled
Andrew Benintendi bunted (sacrifice)
Brock Holt tripled
J.D. Martinez was intentionally walked
Xander Bogaerts singled
Nunez singled
Kinsler singled
Swihart doubled
Bradley singled
Betts singled

The only official at-bat without a hit was Benintendi's 6U-3 double play that ended the inning.

The Red Sox are also the only team in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to record 12+ hits in one inning without hitting a home run.

Before Wednesday, the Red Sox had not scored 11+ runs in an inning since May 7, 2009 (12 runs in the sixth inning against Cleveland) and had recorded 12+ hits in an inning only once since 1984 (June 27, 2003 (13 hits in the first inning against the Marlins).

In that 2003 game, the Red Sox scored 10 runs in the first inning before making an out (the 12th batter made the first out) and finished the inning with a 14-0 lead. Johnny Damon singled, doubled, and tripled in the inning!

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