Red Sox: Start spreading the news, Boston sweeps New York again

Red Sox sweep Yankees and regain AL East lead

WHAT A WEEKEND! These last three days have been the best-case scenario for the Red Sox and things couldn’t have gone any better. By the end of the weekend, we saw Boston regain the lead in the AL East while the Yankees continued their descent into the basement. Sweeping New York a few weeks ago was one thing, but now that they’ve done it twice it feels like one team is on the rise while another is lost at sea.

The first two games of this series were a slugfest with the Red Sox just edging out their hated rivals. Today, today was a completely different story. With a serious chance to achieve a consecutive series sweep of the Yanks, the first time Boston would achieve the feat in a decade, the air was filled with electricity. Add in the fact that Gerrit Cole was on the mound and this was going to be a heavyweight clash. The thing is, it wound up being more like Mike Tyson in his prime against some tomato can from the local gym.

Things got off to a wild start at Fenway Park when Kiké Hernández took Cole’s first pitch of the game to the Monster seats. Fast forward just a little while into the inning and Rafael Devers would follow suit by sending a three-run blast into the bullpen. Just like that, the Red Sox had a 4-0 lead against one of the supposed best pitchers in the game. I say supposed because ever since the league began cracking down on foreign substances being used by pitchers Cole has looked more like Bruce Banner than the Hulk.

There were a lot of heroes today for the Red Sox and I won’t go into every pitch of every inning. This afternoon’s dominant win was an all-around team effort with everyone giving their all from start to finish. Eduardo Rodriguez was an absolute ace on the mound and looked more like his 2019 self. J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez would add moonshots of their own as the game progressed with others adding their own flair to the game.

The overall story of this weekend is that the Red Sox are on the rise in the division and have spent a majority of the season either in first or second place. Meanwhile, the Yankees can’t seem to get out of the starting blocks and now find themselves in fourth place ahead of the Orioles. This isn’t something we’re accustomed to seeing from the Bronx Bombers but from the outside looking in, I think Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone may want to pack their desks. If George Steinbrenner were still in charge they’d be updating their resumes on Indeed already.

For the Red Sox, this was just another killer weekend in a season that has been full of proving the doubters wrong. This squad is giving off big 2013 vibes with the way no game ever feels like it’s over until the final out is recorded. They’ve got the most come-from-behind wins in the league and it’s all because of their heart and the man in the manager’s office. Alex Cora has given Boston the spark that was missed in 2020 and this team is completely reborn.

AC spoke to the media after the game and had two very important messages: this was the best series the team has played all year, and Raffy is really really good.

"“All around, probably the best series we played the whole season,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “We played great defense, ran the bases well, we put pressure on them and got timely hitting.”"

Cora has preached putting pressure on the better teams like New York and Tampa, and so far, it’s paid off. We saw guys going from first to third on base hits today while others stretched for every inch on the base paths. Combine that with patient at-bats and air-tight defense and the Yankees didn’t have a chance today. I don’t know where these two teams will finish the year at in the standings but you better believe I’m going to enjoy every second of New York’s misery.

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As far as Devers is concerned, he couldn’t ask for a better day at the plate. On the afternoon where he was named as a finalist for the All-Star Game, he put up a 3-4 effort with four RBI. If that doesn’t earn him some votes then I don’t know what the hell will. Cora has taken Raffy under his wing since coming to Boston in 2018 and has nothing but praise for the star third baseman. If I had to pick a scene from today it would be Devers standing there watching his homer land in the bullpen.

"“This kid, he was into this series,” said Cora. “I saw him talking to veterans about situations, about at-bats, and he keeps growing. Like I said, this is his best first half of the season professionally, and we all know what he does in the second one, so it should be fun watching him.”"

The Red Sox sweeping the Yankees for the second time in 2021 just feels like the perfect event for this season. Before Opening Day, everyone, and I mean everyone, had the Yankees as the favorite to win the division and land in the World Series while Boston was expected to land in the basement again. While there’s plenty of time left in the campaign with how things are going right now it’d take a collapse and a miracle for the tides to turn for these two clubs. Start spreadin’ the news, the Red Sox a really damn good.