Bill Koch

Monday

Sep 24, 2018 at 11:11 PM


BOSTON --- The best team in baseball to date in 2018 now doubles as the best regular season team in Red Sox history.


It seemed a foregone conclusion Boston would eventually eclipse its 1912 World Series winners during this final homestand, and the Red Sox wasted no time while tending to business on the first night.


Victory No. 106 was secured Monday thanks to more brilliance from Mookie Betts and a dominant combined outing from Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez. Boston [...]

BOSTON --- The best team in baseball to date in 2018 now doubles as the best regular season team in Red Sox history.

It seemed a foregone conclusion Boston would eventually eclipse its 1912 World Series winners during this final homestand, and the Red Sox wasted no time while tending to business on the first night.

Victory No. 106 was secured Monday thanks to more brilliance from Mookie Betts and a dominant combined outing from Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez. Boston skunked the woeful Orioles, 6-2, in front of 35,619 chilled fans at Fenway Park.

Betts drove a two-run homer over the Green Monster to highlight a four-run second inning, and that was all the separation the Red Sox required to send Baltimore to its 111th defeat this season. Boston clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs, finally eliminating Houston, and now stands alone in the franchise record books after Tris Speaker and Smoky Joe Wood reigned for more than a century.

“It’s unreal,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “You think about the history of the game and the history of this franchise. To be part of this, I can’t even explain it. Obviously it’s something where we should call timeout and enjoy this one.”

The Red Sox struck in a flash to build their 4-0 lead, stringing together four hits over the course of five plate appearances during one stretch in the second. Steve Pearce and Brock Holt sent back-to-back doubles to left to make it 1-0, Christian Vazquez lined an RBI single to left center to double the lead and Betts smacked a towering fly down the line in left for a two-run homer that doubled it again. Dylan Bundy went from safe to besieged in the span of 15 pitches, eventually doomed to his 16th defeat of the season.

“It means you’re a part of something special, especially in this organization that’s been around so long,” Betts said. “It’s just a blessing to be a part of something like this.”

Betts was at it again in the fourth, following a single by Jackie Bradley Jr. with one of his own to put men at the corners with nobody out. Andrew Benintendi’s rocket to second ate up Steve Wilkerson and went for an RBI infield single, making it 5-0. Xander Bogaerts followed one batter later with a lined single to left center, chasing home Betts to make it 6-0.

Eovaldi put his dominant array of raw stuff on display through his five innings, matching his career high with 10 strikeouts. It’s just the second time in 155 career appearances Eovaldi has reached double digits, with the first coming as a member of the Marlins against the Mets in May 2014. Eovaldi didn’t issue a walk and was nicked for just a lone run in the fifth before leaving after 84 pitches.

“He pitched great,” Betts said. “He kept them off the board, and when they did score it was just that one. Any time a guy gives us that we should be able to win that game.”

Eovaldi recorded at least one strikeout on each of his five primary pitches, including three apiece on the fastball and cut-fastball and a pair on the split-fingered fastball. He got Jonathan Villar to swing and miss on a curveball in the first and fanned a swinging Caleb Joseph on a slider in the fifth to give himself something of a complete boxed set. Tim Beckham scored on a wild pitch to provide Eovaldi’s lone blemish.

“These last two outings I’ve felt really good, and tonight especially – I had all of my pitches working,” Eovaldi said. “It’s not too often that I have all of my pitches working. I feel like that was the reason for my success tonight.”

Rodriguez started the sixth in a planned relief appearance, just the second of his career. He retired all but one of the seven men he faced, as Renato Nunez lined a two-out single to right in the seventh. Eovaldi and Rodriguez have now both proven capable of coming out of the bullpen for multiple innings should they be called upon in October.

The result also clinched a place in the baseball record books for Cora, who now sits second alone in wins by a manager during his rookie campaign. Cora snapped a tie with Jake Stahl, who was at the helm of Boston’s 1912 team. Cora has only Ralph Houk in front of him, as his Yankees captured 109 games and the World Series in 1961.

“We never talked about records or stuff like that,” Cora said. “You just talk to them before the season and tell them to show up every day and play the game the right way. They’ve done it for a while. They’re very consistent at what they do and we’re very proud of them.”

 

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25