The Red Sox have a couple of streaks on the line tonight as they’ve won five games in a row and are also riding a string of 12 consecutive quality starts from their starters. Extending each will be tricky business though because the Nationals lead all of baseball in both runs scored and RBI. Even worse for Connelly Early is they’ve hit lefties particularly hard, posting a record of five games above .500 (16-11) when facing southpaws and five games below .500 (27-32) when facing a righty.
Another thing working against the Red Sox tonight is the heavy bullpen usage of the high leverage relievers during the last handful of games. At one point last night, it looked like they might give all those guys a full rest and reset day when they jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, but because they failed to score any additional runs the rest of the way and allowed Miles Mikolas to worm his way through seven innings, they had to use both Tyron Guerrero and Garrett Whitlock to finish the job, creating a stickier situation 24 hours later.
So to summarize, the Sox have a pitcher on the mound who has at times struggled to go deep into games, an opposing lineup that’s been excellent all year, a bullpen that might be light on bullets, and a much better opposing starting pitcher on the mound than last night in Cade Cavalli. If Boston manages to pull this one out and extend the winning streak to six, this team might really be onto something.
Let’s see how it turns out!
⚾️ First Pitch: 7:10pm — Fenway Park, Boston, MA
📺 TV: NESN
📻 Radio: WEEI
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