It’s no secret, this has been a great year for the Boston Red Sox. All through the season @RSNStats at Twitter has been telling you about their accomplishments. So now, with the regular season behind us, let’s recap how the year unfolded by reviewing some statistical feats.
Red Sox by the numbers
- The 2013 club finished the regular season 97-65 overall, 53-28 at home and 44-37 on the road.
- In day games they were 28-15 and they were 69-50 at night.
- April was 18-8, May 15-15, June 17-11, July 15-10, August 16-12, and September was 16-9.
- They were 44-32 vs the vaunted American League East, 19-15 vs the Central, and 20-12 vs the West. They were 14-6 vs the National League.
- Facing righty starting pitchers Boston went 65-43. Against lefty starters they were 32-22.
- Boston was 67-19 when scoring first, 30-46 when opponents scored first.
- When scoring less than 3 runs the Red Sox finished 5-33. They were 17-21 when scoring 3 or 4 runs. They were 75-11 when scoring 5+.
- They finished 2013 going 21-21 in 1-run games and 15-15 in 2-run games.
- 31-22 in series openers and 32-21 in the last game of a series.
- In extra innings the club went 10-6, going 4-2 at home and 6-4 on the road.
- There were 36 come-from-behind wins, the last on September 22.
- They batted around 24 times, most recently in the 1st inning on September 27.
- They were 22-14 in games decided in the last at-bat.
At the plate
For all of 2013, the most runs scored in any MLB game was 20. That happened September 4 vs the Tigers. In that game the Red Sox tallied up the most total bases by any team in any MLB game of 2013 (47). That was also the game with the club’s most runs in one inning (8).
Throughout the year, the Red Sox belted out the hits. 76 of their 162 games featured 10+ hits, 2nd most in all of baseball behind 83 by the Tigers. Both clubs had 22 games with 15 or more hits, which was the most such games in baseball for the season. Boston’s most hits in a 9-inning game was 20 on June 25 vs the Rockies. Boston’s most hits in a single inning was 7. That happened twice, most recently in the 2nd inning against the Blue Jays on June 27th. They had 3 games with a club-low 2 hits. The most consecutive hits in an inning was 6 in the 4th inning against the Tigers on June 21.
Red Sox most doubles in a game was 8 on June 4 vs the Rangers. They had 2 games with a season-high 2 triples, most recently on June 28 vs the Blue Jays.
Will Middlebrooks
The most home runs in a game for the Red Sox was 8 on September 4 vs the Tigers. That was also the last game with the most Red Sox home runs in an inning (2). Boston had two home runs in an inning 11 other times in 2013. Will Middlebrooks had the most home runs in a BOS game (3) on April 7 vs Blue Jays at Toronto. On that day he also set the 2013 club record for most extra-base hits (4) and the most total bases (14) in a single game. Twice this season Middlebrooks had the most RBI in a BOS game (7).
The most total extra-base hits in an game was 13 on June 4 vs the Rangers.
Jacoby Ellsbury
The Red Sox exhibited something not often seen by long time fans: speed. And while it came just before a trip to the DL, it was something to behold when Jacoby Ellsbury set the club record for 5 steals in a single game on May 30 vs the Phillies. Ellsbury became only the 21st player to achieve 5+ steals in a single game since 1916, and the first since Carl Crawford stole 6 on May 3, 2009 with the Rays and vs the Red Sox. In addition, Ellsbury had the Red Sox longest hitting streak of 2013, 13 games from June 19 to July 11.
Throughout much of the year the Red Sox showed their patience at the plate. In fact, Boston had the most games in baseball with 7+ walks (20). The most walks in a 9-inning game was 10 on May 2 at Blue Jays.
Now some of the less positive stats, like strikeouts and men left on.
The most Red Sox batters struck out in a 9-inning game was 16. That happened twice, most recently on May 5 at Rangers. Catcher David Ross had a club high 5 strikeouts in one game on May 25 vs the Indians. Mike Napoli finished the season with a club high 187 strikeouts.
When you get a lot of men on base, you’re bound to leave a lot behind, too. The most men left on base in a 9-inning game was 15 on April 5 at Blue Jays.
Pitching
When it comes to pitching, Boston got three 9.0 inning performances from the starting staff: John Lackey on September 19 vs Orioles, Jake Peavy on August 25 vs Dodgers, and Jon Lester on May 10 vs Blue Jays. The shortest outing by a starter was 1.0 innings by Steven Wright on August 6 vs Astros. It was Wright, however, that went the longest this season as a reliever. He pitched 5.2 innings on July 11 at Mariners.
John Lackey
The most strikeouts by a Boston starter was 12 by John Lackey on June 26 vs Rockies. The most Ks by a Boston reliever was by Alfredo Aceves, who had 5 on April 6 at Blue Jays. Jon Lester holds the ignominious record for the most walks allowed in a game (7), that came on June 11 vs the Rays.
The longest win streak for a Red Sox pitcher was Clay Buchholz’ 11 games. The longest losing streak was 4. That happened 4 times, most recently by John Lackey from July 20 to August 11.
Clay Buchholz
Clay Buchholz holds the distinction for the most consecutive scoreless innings by a Red Sox starter (22.0). Koji Uehara’s 30.1 similar innings are the most by a Boston reliever.
Allen Webster allowed the most earned runs in a game (8) on May 8 vs Twins. The most hits allowed in an outing was 12 by Felix Doubront on May 3 facing the Rangers.
Jon Lester
Jon Lester allowed the fewest hits in a complete game this season for Boston. He allowed just 1 by the Blue Jays on May 10.
The most pitches thrown by a Red Sox pitcher this season was 127 by Ryan Dempster on May 18 vs the Phillies.
As a pitching staff the Red Sox got 15 strikeouts on June 26 vs the Rockies. That was the most strikeouts by the club in a 9-inning game. The most walks allowed in a 9-inning game by the staff was 10 on June 11 at Tampa Bay. There were 12 games with no walks allowed at all. By way of comparison, the Rays had the most such games (18) in 2013. The most hits allowed by Red Sox pitchers in a 2013 9-inning game was 19 on May 8 vs the Twins.
A few more…
Throughout the season the Red Sox never really went on a winning, or for that matter, a losing tear. The longest win streak was 7 games from April 13-20. The longest losing streak was never more than 3 games, which happened 5 times, most recently on August 14-16.
The Red Sox longest game in innings was 15 on July 31 at the Mariners. By time, the longest 9-inning game was 4:12 on August 18 vs the Yankees. For extra innings games the longest was 5:24 on June 10 vs the Rays.
The shortest game was a 6-inning, rain shortened affair June 2 vs the Yankees. It clocked in at 1:58. The shortest 9-inning game was 2:07 vs the Dodgers on August 23.
The biggest crowd at Fenway this season was 38,540 on September 18 to see the club face the Orioles. The smallest home crowd was 27,704 on a chilly April 11th, also vs Orioles. Red Sox saw their biggest crowd on the road, 50,240, when they faced the Dodgers on August 23. The smallest group of spectators on the road was 9,143 on April 16 at Cleveland vs the Indians.
Red Sox largest winning margin in 2013 was 16 when they beat the Tigers 20-4 on September 4. Their largest losing margin was 13 when they were shutout 0-13 by the Athletics on April 23.
Down 7-1, the Red Sox scored 6 on August 1 vs the Mariners. That would become the club’s largest deficit overcome for a win. The largest lead relinquished to lose was 4 runs on July 6 at Anaheim vs the Angels.