The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Mets 3-2 on Sunday for their ninth straight win, sending the hottest team in baseball into the All-Star break with a full head of steam. Two weeks ago the streak would have been hard to imagine. Boston sat 14 games under .500 and looked ready to sell. It enters the break at 46-48, a half-game out of the third American League wild-card spot.
The pitching carried it, as it has all week. Brayan Bello gave up one run over 4 1/3 innings, and Payton Tolle was the story out of the bullpen: 3 2/3 innings, one run, seven strikeouts, a rookie asked to bridge the middle innings on the road and doing it cleanly. Garrett Whitlock worked a scoreless ninth for the save; Aroldis Chapman took the win.
Why it matters
There was not much offense to admire, and that is part of the point. Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler, and Jarren Duran each drove in a run, and three was enough. Francisco Lindor‘s two-run homer accounted for both New York runs in the series finale at Citi Field.
The detail worth keeping is where all of this happened. Every one of the nine wins came away from Fenway. By Boston.com’s accounting it is only the second 9-0 road trip in franchise history, matching a run from the summer of 1977. Streaks like this tend to flatter the schedule as much as the team, and the honest read is that Boston has beaten a soft stretch of opponents rather than the class of the league. But it has won 14 of 16 and turned a lost season back into a live one, which is more than the standings suggested on the Fourth of July.
For fantasy managers, Tolle is the name to file away. A multi-inning rookie piling up strikeouts in real leverage is worth a speculative add in deeper formats, especially if Boston keeps leaning on him for length; his ratios have been strong enough to help even without saves or wins attached. Duran remains an every-week outfielder despite a quiet series at the plate.
