Aug. 29—It hasn’t always been pretty, but this week the Red Sox have done what they needed to do to shore up their place in the playoff picture.
With Saturday’s 5-3 win over the Cleveland Indians, the Red Sox clinched their third straight series victory since being swept by the Yankees in the Bronx a week and a half ago.
Boston has now won three straight and six out of eight, and in doing so the Red Sox have built themselves a 3.5-game cushion over the Oakland Athletics for the second spot in the American League Wild Card race.
They have also kept pace with the New York Yankees, whose 13-game winning streak was finally snapped by Oakland on Saturday afternoon. The Red Sox remain just two games behind the Yankees for the first spot in the Wild Card and could theoretically still make a run at the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, though they still trail the Rays by 6.5 games.
The wins haven’t necessarily come easily, but over the last few days Boston has gotten the job done by making many of the big plays in key spots they simply couldn’t for much of July and early August.
Saturday, the Red Sox posted seven consecutive scoreless innings after the Indians scored twice in the bottom of the second. Five relievers combined to shut out the Indians through the ninth, keeping the Red Sox in it even after failing to score with runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Once the 10th rolled around, the bats finally came to life, and J.D. Martinez hit a three-run home run to push the Sox in front. Martin Perez made it interesting by loading the bases in the bottom of the inning, but he and Adam Ottavino were able to finish the job while allowing only one run to score on a weakly hit RBI single.
It was exactly the kind of game Boston was losing as recently as a few days ago.
Friday, the Red Sox arrived in Cleveland amid chaos after Kiké Hernández tested positive for COVID-19 and Christian Arroyo was deactivated for being a close contact. Jonathan Araúz, having arrived from Buffalo hours earlier, wound up being the hero after hitting the go-ahead three-run home run in the eighth inning.
Eduardo Rodriguez, meanwhile, pitched all the way into the seventh, and Garrett Richards and Ottavino finished the job in the eighth and ninth.
The Indians aren’t a playoff team, and the Red Sox have yet to prove they can play this way against their top competitors, but at this point the club will take the wins however they can get them.
Now the Red Sox have a chance to go for the sweep, which would set them up well heading up to this week’s huge road series against Tampa Bay.
Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.