Hey, when one of your key players’ last name is Betts, many sportsbooks are bound to like you. Boston Red Sox’s right fielder Mookie Betts put on show on Sunday to help his team come from behind, as they usually do, against the Cincinnati Reds, winning their sixth game in a row, going 8-1 on the road, increasing their AL East division lead to five games over the New York Yankees with seven games left and, finally, winning consecutive divisional titles for the first time in franchise history.
The BoSox displayed, in the eighth inning, their skill for scoring runs even though they rank last in the league and 27th in the majors in home runs, even in the midst of a home run record-breaking season. We don't give at-bats away,” manager John Farrell said per ESPN.com. “You look at the eighth inning that, finally we were able to mount an inning, have one offensive push today. Combined in that are the relentless at-bats of Vazqui, Beni with a couple of walks built in there. That's a part of our weaponry and it continues to show true to form.” Betts exemplified the Red Sox’s determination when, after tying the score, he kept going around third on Rafael Devers’s tapper, forcing Reds closer Raisel Iglesias to rush a throw in the dirt to first base and beating Joey Votto to the punch.
“With Iglesias pitching, I know it’s going to be tough to score,” said Betts. “I know Devvy runs good down the line and I figured he would have a chance to beat it. With that play having to happen, me running home was going to be a tough play at home.” That late rally would have, of course, been impossible without Boston’s bullpen not allowing a hit and surrendering just one unearned run. “We're learning a lot about ourselves,” starter Doug Fister, whom Farrell lifted in the sixth said. “We can put ourselves in a corner getting down early and all of a sudden we fight back.” Fernando Abad, Brandon Workman, Robby Scott, Addison Reed and Craig Kimbrel succeeded Fister when the Red Sox were down 1-3. Boston ended up getting the 5-4 win.
Coupled with said win, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim losing to the Cleveland Indians means that the Red Sox have reached a postseason berth for the second straight season and, at, as of this writing, 91 wins, they could conceivably match the 97 victories from the2013 season, when they last won the World Series. The Red Sox are, according to Vegas, tied with the Nationals for fourth favorite team to win the World Series in 2017, also known as Year 1 AD (after David Ortiz, whose influence is still, nonetheless, seen in such youngsters as Devers, whom Big Papi has been mentoring after the legend signed a long-term contract to work for the Red Sox. “He was a superstar in the big leagues,” Devers said via Masslive.com
