Red Sox - 021 100 201 - 7 12 0 Blue Jays - 000 020 011 - 4 7 3Xander Bogaerts collected his 50th double of the season in the top of the third inning on Thursday.
With Rafael Devers also having hit 50 doubles, it's the first time in Red Sox history two teammates have had 50+ doubles in the same season. And the 2019 Red Sox are only the third team since 1947 to have two or more players with 50+ doubles (1996 Mariners, 2000 Rockies).
Bogaerts is also only the second player in Red Sox history with a 30/50 season (David Ortiz, 2007) and only the second shortstop in history (Alex Rodriguez, 1996).
No major league team has ever had two players with 30+ home runs and 50+ doubles in a season. Bogaerts has 31 home runs and 50 doubles and Devers has 29 home runs and 50 doubles. The Red Sox have 15 more games for Raffy to go deep one more time.
No major league team has ever had four players with 75+ extra-base hits. The Red Sox could be the first: Devers (83), Bogaerts (81), Mookie Betts (73), J.D. Martinez (70). Devers and X rank 1st and 2nd in the majors.
Betts went 3-for-5 against the Blue Jays, stealing his 15th base of the year and scoring two runs. Bogaerts and Brock Holt each had two hits, with Martinez chipping in with a double and drawing Boston's only two walks of the night.
Marco Hernández's two-run double in the second got the Red Sox on the board against Clay Buchholz (4-7-4-1-4, 80). Back-to-back "Baltimore dongs" by XB and JDM made it 3-0 and Juan Centeno singled home Jackie Bradley to give Boston a 4-0 lead.
The Red Sox currently have a 20-man pitching staff, so using nine pitchers, as Alex Cora did tonight, was no big deal. Only one of the nine threw more than 23 pitches: starter Jhoulys Chacin (2.2-2-0-2-3, 48). After Chacin, Darwinzon Hernández, Josh Taylor, Brian Johnson, Ryan Brasier, Andrew Cashner, Marcus Walden, Matt Barnes, and Brandon Workman all toed the slab, as some people still say.
Betts, RFSince being traded after the 2016 season, Clay Buchholz has pitched in only 26 major league games, two with the Phillies (2017), 16 with the Diamondbacks (2018), and eight with the Blue Jays (2019). (He also started three games in the Royals minor league system in 2018.)
Holt, 3B
Bogaerts, SS
Martinez, DH
Benintendi, LF
Moreland, 1B
Bradley, CF
M. Hernández, 2B
Centeno, C
Buchholz was successful in Arizona, with a 2.01 ERA, including a 0.89 ERA in his last seven games (40.1 innings). He has made three starts for Toronto since coming off the injured list (right shoulder inflammation) in late August. Buchholz, who turned 35 about one month ago, has never pitched against Boston. Manager Alex Cora was the Red Sox's shortstop when Laptop made his major league debut on August 17, 2007.
The Red Sox (76-70) need at least six wins in their final 16 games to finish above .500. They have lost their last five games and seven of their last nine. At this point last season, they were 100-46.
The Red Sox managed only two singles last night, so their streak of consecutive games with an extra-base hit ended at 159, the fourth-longest streak since 1900. The 2004-05 Red Sox hold the major league record (164 games).
The Red Sox have hit .186 in their last seven games, and have scored 0 or 1 run in four of the seven games (1, 6, 1, 5, 0, 3, 0).
Mookie Betts has 28 home runs. Two more dongs will make Betts the sixth player ever with 30+ homers, 40+ doubles, and 5+ triples in as many as three seasons (2016, 2018). The other five players are in the Hall of Fame: Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Hank Greenberg, Chuck Klein, Rogers Hornsby.
Betts leads both leagues with 129 runs scored. No Red Sox player has scored 130 runs in a season in the last 68 years (since 1950). Betts could become the only Red Sox player other than Ted Williams to score 140+ runs in a season. He is on pace for 143.
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