The Boston Red Sox finished a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, winning 7-5 at Angel Stadium and outscoring the Angels 20-8 across the weekend. Boston has won three straight and eight of its last 10.
The win itself was an odd construction, and a revealing one. Ranger Suarez lasted just 2 2/3 innings, touched for three runs on six hits before his day ended at 53 pitches. What followed was the quieter story of the afternoon: five relievers covered the final 6 1/3 innings and allowed two runs. Greg Weissert retired all four men he faced for the win, Tyron Guerrero gave two hitless innings behind him, and Aroldis Chapman worked around a run in the ninth to close it out.
The offense supplied the margin in two swings. Willson Contreras homered and drove in three; Jarren Duran homered and drove in two. Masataka Yoshida went 3-for-5 with an RBI. The Angels got a 3-for-5 day with a home run from Zach Neto, but never caught back up.
Now the rigorous part. Those eight wins in 10 include a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees at Fenway in late June, and yet Boston remains 40-48, last in the AL East, 12.5 games behind Tampa Bay — a measure of how deep the hole was dug in April and May. A hot stretch in a losing season proves nothing by itself. But this franchise’s history is full of teams that introduced themselves before they arrived, and the ingredients here are at least genuine: the lineup is producing up and down the order, and a bullpen asked to cover 19 outs on Sunday did it with room to spare.
The Red Sox are off Monday. The sweep does not change what this season is. It does suggest, for the first time in a while, what the next one might look like.
