Red Sox Strut: Catcher Christian Vazquez, LHP Drew Pomeranz
By Sean Penney
Position Player Candidates
Chris Young essentially was the Red Sox offense on Sunday. He crushed a pair of home runs over the left field wall and added a double to drive in five of the team’s six runs to seal a series sweep over the White Sox. He did little else in his three other appearances last week, yet it was enough to finish with a strong .364/.417/1.000 line for the week.
After getting a couple of games off to clear his head and focus on the mechanics of his swing, Andrew Benintendi returned to the lineup with a vengeance. The rookie hit a team-high .462 with a 1.457 OPS last week, including a home run, two doubles and three RBI. His base running blunders are becoming a concern, but he did steal three bases to give him an even dozen for the season.
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Eduardo Nunez hasn’t stopped hitting since joining the Red Sox. He’s hit safely in seven of his nine games since being acquired from the San Francisco Giants. Nunez has already doubled his home run total for the season with four since the trade. He went 11-for-28 (.393) at the plate last week with two of those home runs and a team-high nine RBI.
Teams look for a spark at this time of year to carry them through the stretch run. The Nunez trade has certainly been one for Boston, while the promotion of top prospect Rafael Devers has been another. The 20-year old hit .391 with a home run, three RBI and picked up his first career stolen base.
Mitch Moreland broke out of his second half slump in a big way last week, hitting .300 with a pair of homers and five RBI. The highlight of his week was a walk-off home run to cap an 11th inning rally against the White Sox. This was Boston’s eighth walk-off of the season and second in the span of three games.
Who had the first walk-off hit of the week for the Red Sox? Glad you asked, as we’re about to get to that.