RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesBOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ win over the White Sox Wednesday night at Fenway Park:
1) The Red Sox extended their win streak to seven games Wednesday with a 4-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The Red Sox scored the only run they would need in the first on an RBI single from Willson Contreras, then added solo runs in the third (Wilyer Abreu homer), seventh (sacrifice fly from Andruw Monasterio) and eighth (Caleb Durbin run-scoring single). Boston is now 5-0 against the White Sox this season. Four Red Sox pitchers combined to shut out the White Sox.
2) This was more the Sonny Gray that the Red Sox had seen for much of this season. Before Wednesday night, Gray had shown some signs of hitting something of a wall, with 17 hits and nine runs allowed in his last two starts, covering 12 innings. But if there were any worries that Gray was trending in the wrong direction, they were eliminated by his performance. Gray gave the Sox six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits while striking out eight to earn his 14th win of the season.
3) There are few players who have hot streaks like Wilyer Abreu. He homered in the third inning Wednesday night, giving him four in the last three games (he homered twice in the first game of the series). In mid-July, he had consecutive two-homer games, and at the start of the season, had a stretch in which he homered three times in the first six games. Now, he seems to be on another genuine heater.
4) Jarren Duran continues to heat up. He came into Wednesday with a modest four-game hitting streak, but had two homers in that stretch, including one in Tuesday’s series opener. On Wednesday, he ripped a double just inside the first base bag, giving him three extra-base hits in the last five games. It may well be that Duran is freed by the fact that he was neither traded nor released (which he told the Boston Globe he feared) at the deadline and is ready to go off at the plate.
5) Before the season, FanGraphs’ prediction model, ZiPS, famously predicted that no one on the Red Sox’ roster would hit 20 home runs this season. Willson Contreras was the first to hit the milestone last month, and Wednesday night, Abreu joined him, connecting for his 20th homer. Given that there’s still almost exactly one-third of the season to play, a number of teammates could eventually join them, including Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela, who currently sit at 15 each.
6) It’s been a while since the Red Sox have had a third baseman who charges slow rollers and bunts as well as Caleb Durbin. Durbin flashed that skill in the seventh when, with one out, Tristan Peters attempted to push a bunt toward third. Durbin raced in, plucked the ball and made a strong throw to first, nipping Peters. The last Sox’ third baseman who could make that play on a regular basis might have been Adrian Beltre, now a Hall of Famer, in 2010.
7) As the Red Sox build another win streak, it helps that they’ve frequently been getting out ahead of their opponents. They did so again Wednesday, notching a run in the bottom of the first, though that wasn’t as impressive as the six-spot they put up in the first on Tuesday. In Los Angeles over the weekend, the Red Sox scored first in all three games — twice scoring in the first inning and once in the second inning. How important is that stat? They’re now 41-14 when doing so this season.
8) One of the underrated skills of Willson Contreras at first base is his throwing arm, which maybe shouldn’t be a surprise given his catching background. On Tuesday night, he made a nice throw to second to cut down the lead runner on the bases. On Wednesday, he fielded an off-the-mark throw from third baseman Caleb Durbin in the third inning, and when Sam Antonacci tried to round third and score on the play, Contreras fired a perfect throw to Connor Wong, who tagged out Antonacci at the plate.
9) In the final game of the three-game series between the teams Thursday night, it will be LHP Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Castillo (3-9, 5.06) at 7:10 p.m. This will be Castillo’s first start for the White Sox after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners at the deadline.
More Red Sox coverage
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Jarren Duran expected Red Sox to release him because he was MLB’s ‘worst player’
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