Red Sox Have Gone Nearly One Month Without Winning Back-To-Back Games

Update!: May 13-14: Red Sox beat Texas 7-1 and 11-3.

It has been almost one month since the Red Sox (11-20) won back-to-back games. They have done that twice this season: April 12-13 and April 16-17.

The Red Sox are in Texas for the weekend, trying to win a few baseball games. Since April 22, they are 4-13, with a batting line of .222/.283/.322 and an average of 3.1 runs per game (and less than one-half of a home run per game (0.4)).

While the Red Sox have limped along, losing 13 of their last 17 games, the Yankees have won 15 of 17. Last night in Chicago, the MFY blew leads of 2-0 and 7-4 against the White Sox, but rallied to win 15-7. They are 23-8 (best record in MLB) and have a 4.5-game lead over the Rays in the East. 

Chicago starting pitcher Dylan Cease had an odd outing against New York last night. He pitched four innings and 11 of his 12 outs were strikeouts, but he also gave up six runs (4-6-6-2-11, 90). He allowed seven balls to be put into play: one single, two doubles, one triple, two home runs, and a popup to shortstop. Cease showed off a 25-mph difference (!) between his fastball (97.4) and changeup (72.1) last night:

The AL-West-leading Astros have won ten games in a row, with five shutouts and nine games with two or fewer runs allowed: 3-0, 4-0, 7-2, 3-2, 3-2, 3-2, 5-0, 5-0, 11-3, and 5-0. Their team ERA during the streak is 0.90! Houston has allowed more than three runs only once in its last 16 games (1.71 ERA).

After three games in Texas, the Red Sox face the Astros at Fenway next Monday-Wednesday.