The Red Sox played like defending world champions this weekend, sinking the Mariners in three straight games at Fenway Park.
To be fair, these were a mere imitation of the Seattle ball club that Boston faced to open the 2019 season. Back then, the Mariners took three of four from the Sox on the way to a 13-2 start. With the weekend losses, Seattle has now lost four in a row and gone 2-12 since April 27.
This weekend Boston pounced in 14-1, 9-5, and 11-2 victories, marking its first time ever with nine or more runs in three straight games of a single series versus Seattle. It was, in fact, the first such time in almost 12 seasons that Boston achieved that feat against any major league club (2007 at White Sox) and the first such time at Fenway since 2003 vs the Marlins.
The rainy, cool Mothers Day game included stand out Sox performances, including a third straight three-hit game for Rafael Devers, who joined Xander Bogaerts (in 2014) as the only Red Sox since at least 1908 with such a streak before turning 23 years old. Devers is now 12-for-22 (.545) over his five game hitting streak.
- Scuffing Michael Chavis, playing in his 20th career game, shook off an 0-for-his-last-23 with a five RBI effort, including three that came with two outs. Chavis is just the ninth for Boston with 5+ RBI in one of his first 20 major league appearances.
- Chavis has 19 RBI for the season. Since 1920 when RBI became an official stat, only Ted Williams in George Scott had more within their first 20 career games (20 each in 1939 and 1966, respectively).
- It was a career-high four walks for Bogaerts on Sunday. It was the first time in 429 games between these clubs that Mariners pitching walked a Red Sox batter as many times in a 9-inning game.
- J.D. Martinez belted two home runs on Sunday marking his 11th career multi-HR effort and his first since last August 11. Martinez now has three HRs for his last five games.
The Red Sox have now won a season-best five straight games. This week they’ll enjoy home cooking and two off-days sandwiching a two-game set against the Rockies followed by a weekend series against the Astros.