Friday night's game between the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros showed us just why Boston has the potential to take the American League pennant: timely hitting and clutch performances from their big men, Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez.
We have come to expect such performances from these two, but had somewhat lost confidence in the team since its latest interleague stint—in two of those games against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Red Sox left men on base in 16 of the 18 innings played.
That shadow overcasting Boston opened up to brighter skies in the seventh inning of last night's game.
We saw the Red Sox come from four runs down to take a two-run lead in route to an eventual two-run win.
This is the kind of play that we have grown accustomed to seeing. With their high-powered offense and gold-glove defense, the Red Sox have the ability to put up 14 runs in back-to-back games (multiple times) while allowing just a few to opposing sides.
If the Sox can acquire some new talent before the trade deadline —particularly to solve the right-field situation and supplement the batting order —they may very well be unstoppable.
With Pedroia and Gonzalez being clutch performers, bred for games played on huge stages, Boston will no doubt be heading to its third World Series this century.
The pitching staff, of course, has to stay healthy as well for Boston to make that all-important run into October.
However, Boston's pitching is relatively young and shouldn't see any substantial injuries.
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