Sox rout Mets for 7th straight
Schwarber belts pair of HRs to finish sweep
Among the teams contending for the American League wild card spot, the Red Sox were gifted with by far the easiest schedule to end the season of all of them. And so far, they’re taking full advantage of it.
With 11 of their final 14 games against teams with sub.-500 records, the Red Sox’ chances of at least making it to the wild card game already looked good. And now with sweeps of the lowly Orioles and Mets, they’re in even better shape as they welcome the Yankees to town for perhaps the most important series of the season.
Kyle Schwarber continued his season-long torment of the Mets with two more home runs, and the Red Sox didn’t look back in an easy 12-5 romp to seal a twogame sweep of the visitors from Queens, who couldn’t get out of their own way with a painfully sloppy defensive effort.
The Red Sox were happy to accommodate. The victory pushed their winning streak to seven games as they continued to tighten their hold atop the wild card standings.
They increased their lead over the Blue Jays, who lost to the Rays, to 2 1/2 games, while they stayed two games up on the Yankees going into their big threegame set this weekend at Fenway, where they’ll have a chance to make things very hard for their rivals in the final week of the season.
Though the Red Sox fell into a tailspin after the trade deadline that put them out of the race for the division, the addition and impact of Schwarber — whose bat continued to make a big difference amid their COVID19 outbreak — has been a major reason why they remain in favorable playoff positioning. Wednesday, he provided the latest example.
It was almost written in the stars. As a member of the Nationals before being dealt to the Red Sox, Schwarber had already belted seven homers this season against the Mets, including two against Taijuan Walker.
With Walker on the mound again Wednesday, Schwarber couldn’t resist doing more damage. He hit a solo, no-doubt 434-foot blast to straightaway center in his first at-bat as the Sox struck first before he went to the well again in the second. With two on and one out, Schwarber demolished Walker’s 2-1 fastball, sending it 405 feet to right to give the Sox a commanding 6-1 lead, and the game wasn’t again in doubt.
Schwarber’s nine homers against the Mets this season, which have all come in his last five games against them, are the second-most by a player against a single opponent this season. He only trails Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has 10 in 16 games against the Orioles.
Schwarber added a leadoff double in the fourth that somehow dropped in between Jonathan Villar and Jeff McNeil down the leftfield line and came around to score to make it 10-1. The Red Sox produced eight extra-base hits in the first four innings in another offensive outburst.
They have scored 59 runs — 8.4 per game — during their seven-game winning streak.
Other takeaways:
Jose Iglesias continued to look like a man rejuvenated by his new situation. The second baseman started an incredible inning-ending double play in the third, handling a sharp grounder from Francisco Lindor and flipping it to Xander Bogaerts to complete the twin killing. Then, he extended his hitting streak to nine games in the bottom half of the frame when he scored on a two-run triple. His deep drive to right was badly misplayed by Kevin Pillar, and the relay throw sailed out of play as he slid into third, allowing him to score.
In his second appearance since returning from the COVID-19 injury list, Matt Barnes struggled. He replaced Chris Sale in the sixth, but only recorded one out, allowing a leadoff walk to J.D. Davis, a single to Villar and another free pass to Villar before Alex Cora took him out in favor of Ryan Brasier.