The Tampa Bay Rays scored first. Then they scored again. And then the Boston Red Sox did what they’ve been doing for the better part of two weeks — they hit everything in sight, stopped asking questions, and walked off with a 5-3 win to complete a doubleheader sweep at Fenway Park.
Eleven in a row. Aroldis Chapman on the mound for the final outs. The All-Star break is here, and nobody in a Boston uniform seems to have noticed.
The Rays actually jumped out looking like the team with a plan. Edward Rivera’s control abandoned him in the first — Junior Caminero singled, then both Vilade and Mullins walked to load the bases — and DeLuca drove a 2-2 single up the middle to plate two. A 2-0 lead before the Red Sox had settled into their dugout seats.
It lasted about four minutes.
Mason Englert, the Rays starter, gave up a double to Rafaela, then watched Wilyer Abreu send one into the seats to tie it. Carlos Contreras followed with another home run, and suddenly it was 3-2 Boston before the Rays had finished processing the first inning. The only thing that kept it from getting worse was Williamson’s lunging catch on the next batter — a ball that left the bat smoking.
Junior Caminero did his part to keep Tampa Bay alive. In the third, he unloaded on a solo shot that registered 111.6 mph off the bat, tying the game at 3 and giving the Rays a pulse. It was the kind of contact that makes you stop what you’re doing.
But the Red Sox answered in the fourth with another home run to retake the lead, then added a run on a long double. After four innings: 5-3, Boston. And that was the ballgame.
The Rays bullpen — Craig Kimbrel, Joey Sulser, and Zack Kelly — combined for scoreless relief the rest of the way, which on most nights gives an offense a fighting chance. This was not most nights. After Caminero’s third-inning blast, the Tampa Bay lineup managed two singles the rest of the game. One of them was erased on a double play. The comeback never materialized.
Chapman came in to close it out, and the 11th consecutive win was secured. The doubleheader sweep pushed Boston’s streak from nine — which had already earned them a “wicked smart baseball” label from CBS Sports analysts entering the break — to eleven, with the second-half opener still ahead.
Here’s the number that matters: the Red Sox have not lost a game since before the All-Star break officially began. They’ve outscored opponents by a margin that suggests this isn’t a hot streak so much as a team that figured something out and hasn’t been forced to stop yet. Home runs in bunches, a bullpen that’s locking down late innings, and an offense that treats early deficits like a mild inconvenience.
The Rays, meanwhile, leave Fenway with a bullpen that pitched well enough to win and an offense that went quiet for six innings. Caminero’s exit velocity was the loudest thing they produced after the third. Englert’s start — three home runs allowed across the first four frames — put Tampa Bay in a hole that the lineup couldn’t climb out of, and the relievers who followed were pitching to preserve a loss, not protect a lead.
Boston enters the second half with the longest active winning streak in baseball. The break is over. The Red Sox don’t seem to care.
Sources:
- Yahoo Sports — Rays 3, Red Sox 5
- r/baseball — Aroldis Chapman seals 11th consecutive win
- CBS Sports MLB — Red Sox enter second half on win streak