Boston Red Sox vibin’ on top of the American League East
Don’t look now, but your Boston Red Sox, yes, the same Red Sox team that was trending as the worst team in baseball just over a week ago now sit atop of the AL East following a 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night at Camden Yards.
With a combination of solid pitching and timely hitting, the Red Sox rallied to their fifth consecutive victory in this young MLB season.
Catapulted by veteran starter Garrett Richards, who turned a disastrous debut start into a nice bounce back start on Saturday night, the Red Sox are looking like a much different team than they were in 2020 and through the first three games of the season when the Orioles made them look like the worst team in the AL East.
Fast forward to this series, and it is the Red Sox on the brink of sweeping the O’s after taking sole possession of first place with the 10th inning clutch victory.
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Boston Red Sox winning in different ways
As satisfying as Richards’ start was, giving up just two runs through five innings, it was even more encouraging that the team was able to battle back
twice with the hot bat of J.D. Martinez sidelined due to an illness.
Rafael Devers came through, young prospect Bobby Dalbec came through and Mr. Sexy himself Christian Vazquez came through in clutch situations.
In turning around the season as quickly as they have, the Sox has Red Sox Nation smiling as manager Alex Cora is loving how his team is vibin’ right now.
"“It’s a good vibe,” Cora said following the game, via MLB.com. “We’ve got a bunch of good baseball players. That’s the way I see it. I know a lot of people don’t feel like we’ve got superstars, but I like my bunch. It’s a good baseball team. They did everything right. We played that extra-inning rule the way we wanted to, and we got the W.”"
That is really good about this team is the different ways they are finding to win baseball games.
Boston Red Sox vibin’ and winning with hustle
Let’s go back to that ninth inning.
With the Red Sox down 4-3 and runners at the corner, the struggling Bobby Dalbec stepped to the plate with a chance to make some kind of contribution to the team.
He did exactly that, but not in the way one would expect. With his power, one would expect him to swing for the fences or simply hit a fly ball deep enough to get the tying run home.
Instead, he hit a grounder to shortstop and tied the game with his hustle rather than his power.
It probably was scripted that way in his head, but watching a man listed at 6-foot-4 and 227 pounds leg out a grounder to keep his team in the game is something that has been exciting about this team through 8 games.
The best part is Dalbec knew he could beat out the ground ball.
"“Yeah, I did. As soon as I hit it, I was just flying,” Dalbec said following the game. “[Well], flying for me. But yeah, I knew that’s a big-time run there, obviously, and I was trying to let it out.”"
Next. Boston Red Sox: Stellar week for J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez. dark
With is being his first RBI of the season, perhaps it is the type of play that gets Dalbec going at the plate, which will only increase those “good vibes” flowing through this first place Boston Red Sox squad.