Mookie Betts, Brock Holt Leading Resurgent Red Sox Offense
The slugfest exhibited by the Boston Red Sox Sunday afternoon in Kansas City looked like something out of video game. Boston belted out 13 extra-base hits and 16 hits in total, securing a series victory over the Royals with a 13-2 win.
Boston’s first nine hits of the game included seven doubles and two homers.
The Red Sox scored five runs in the fifth and three in sixth to blow the game wide open though, sluggers Hanley Ramirez and David Ortiz sparked the offense early on. In the second, Ramirez jacked a solo homer to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. David Ortiz then clubbed a 456-foot shot in the fourth to make it 2-0.
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Mookie Betts, who has torn the cover off the ball since returning to the leadoff spot, launched a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 4-0 Red Sox. Xander Bogaerts added a bases-clearing double later in the inning to make it 7-0.
In the sixth, Brock Holt and Dustin Pedroia added RBI doubles. Ortiz plated one run with a base-hit later in the frame. Later, in the eighth, Holt and Pedroia each added another RBI to make it 12-0. Sandy Leon topped things off in the ninth with an RBI single.
It’s important to note that the Red Sox did not achieve such success off of a slouch. They roughed up, Chris Young, who had a 1.98 ERA entering the contest.
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John Farrell placed Betts in the leadoff spot on Saturday for the first time since May. The move came after Betts had four hits in Boston’s series-opening game with the Royals on Friday. In addition to his homer, Betts added a double and triple in Sunday’s win. Betts is hitting .556 over the course of the nine-game hitting streak he is currently on. Batting Betts at the top the lineup allows him to set the stage for offensive production.
Let’s not overlook Brock Holt’s outstanding play. Holt is locked in at the plate and he delivered another three knocks in the win. Batting out of the second spot in the lineup, Holt tripled and doubled twice. He now has three triples in his last six games and has reached base safely in each of those games.
Betts has been performing like a game-changing, impact player for the Red Sox. Holt has been invaluable, rotating around the field, yet hitting at a consistent clip on a daily basis. Pedroia and Bogaerts have been more than reliable. They’ve also been hot as pistol as the two each connected for three hits in the game. Sprinkle in the power of Ortiz and Ramirez and the Red Sox have themselves a recipe to return to contention.