Orioles - 000 010 010 - 2 7 1 Red Sox - 040 200 00x - 6 10 0
They are the first team to win as many as 106 games since the 2001 Mariners set the American League record with 116. They also clinched home field advantage through the entire postseason.
The 1912 Red Sox won 105 games back when teams played a 154-game schedule. Since the 162-game schedule was instituted in 1961, no Red Sox team had won 100 games until this year. The previous top totals came in: 1978 (99 wins), 2004 (98), and 1977 and 2013 (97).
Mookie Betts continued his torrid hitting, cranking his 32nd home run (a career-high). He also stole his 29th base of the year and scored two runs. His single in the fourth inning was his 10th hit in his previous 14 at-bats. Betts has a good chance at ending the regular season with the highest slugging percentage for a leadoff hitter in baseball history. Brady Anderson set the mark in 1996: .627. Betts is currently at .639.
Over the weekend in Cleveland, Betts became the only first Red Sox player to have four or more hits and at least three extra-base hits in consecutive games. He is only the ninth player to do so since 1908.
And how about this crazy factoid from Elias:
Most Games With 3+ Extra-Base Hits Before Turning 26 Years Old (since 1900):Betts also served up the straight dope in a post-game on-field interview:
1. Mookie Betts – 17
T2. Lou Gehrig – 14
T2. Jimmie Foxx – 14
T4. Mel Ott – 13
T4. Alex Rodriguez – 13
Guerin Austin (NESN): "Mookie, tonight you guys break a franchise record with 106 wins. What does that say about this club?Also: This was the first major league game in almost 80 years in which the two teams were separated by as many as 60 wins (Boston 105, Baltimore 45)! On September 17, 1939, the Yankees (98-41) faced the St. Louis Browns (38-99).
Betts: "Uhh, it just means we're pretty good."
The Red Sox scored four times in the second inning off Dylan Bundy (3-5-4-3-5). Steve Pearce and Brock Holt hit back-to-back doubles with one out. Christian Vázquez singled home Holt for a 2-0 lead. With two down, Betts hit a high fly into the Monster Seats. Bundy threw 90 pitches in three innings: 25-34-31.
Lefty Donnie Hart started the fourth and Orioles manager Buck Showalter was soon thinking he should have stayed with Bundy. Jackie Bradley's ground ball clanked off Jonathan Villar's glove at shortstop for a single. Betts lined a single to right and JBJ went to third. Betts stole second and Andrew Benintendi ripped a single past second baseman Steve Wilkerson. Bradley scored and after J.D. Martinez walked, Xander Bogaerts singled home Betts. With the bases loaded, Rafael Devers grounded back to Hart, who started a rarely-seen 1-2-5 double play, which meant Devers was safe on a fielder's choice.
The Red Sox's bats were quiet after that, but it did not matter as Nathan Eovaldi (5-4-1-0-10, 84) dominated, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts. He struck out two batters in the second, third, and fourth innings (one looking and one swinging in each frame), and after giving up two singles to start the fifth, he struck out the next three Orioles. Eovaldi also threw two wild pitches in that inning, one of which brought in an enemy run.
Joe Kelly faced four batters in the eighth and gave up a single and two walks. Baltimore scored a run on a sac fly against Ryan Brasier, but Brasier picked off Villar to end the inning.
The Red Sox saw 119 pitches in the first four innings, but late in the game, they were far less patient. Sean Gilmartin, who pitched the last four innings for the Orioles, needed only four pitches in the eighth: a called strike, followed by three infield grounders.
It wouldn't be a proper Red Sox game without NESN missing at least one pitch (Adam Jones's fly to right in the fourth) and engaging in some excessive zooming (on a pitch up and in to Vázquez in the fifth).
Dave O'Brien mentioned the July 25 game in Baltimore that was washed away after 1.5 innings. He said the Red Sox scored five runs off Bundy "in the blink of an eye". It actually took ten batters over two innings.
Dennis Eckersley treated us to "sinkage", "emergency piece", "bridge ball", and "high hair", as well as numerous examples of beginning a comment at Point A and ending somewhere around Point ZXQ. If you diagrammed Eck's sentence structure, it would look like a ball of string a kitten has played with.
Betts, RFThe Orioles "gained ground" on the Red Sox yesterday and now sit only 59.5 games behind Boston. That number must get back over 60 immediately.
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Devers, 3B
Pearce, 1B
Holt, 2B
Vázquez, C
Bradley, CF
SURE, GO AHEAD, LAUGH IF YOU WANT TO. ... I'VE SEEN YOUR TYPE BEFORE: FLASHY, MAKING THE SCENE, FLAUNTING CONVENTION. ... MAYBE THAT'S HOW YOU GET YOUR KICKS, YOU AND YOUR GOODTIME BUDDIES. BUT I'VE GOT A FLASH FOR YOU, JOY BOY, NEXT YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT!
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