Surging Red Sox win fifth straight
At this rate, the Boston Red Sox won't be recognizable when they return home next week.
It was only a week ago that the Red Sox gagged away a nine-run lead in a humiliating
loss to the Yankees at Fenway Park. Their record slipped to 4-10, and manager Bobby
Valentine, booed every time he so much as moved to the top step of the dugout, declared
that they had hit rock bottom.
Since then, they haven't lost. In fact, they've done no wrong.
Led by another explosion of offense and an impressive start by Daniel Bard, the Red Sox
won their fifth consecutive game, 10-3 over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night, to pull
to within one game of .500. It's their longest winning streak since July 5-11 of last
season, when they won six in a row heading into the All-Star break.
"For a team like this, it's good to go through a little heartache," outfielder Cody
Ross said. "I don't know about the way we did it in the beginning of the season like that.
But it kind of grinds you and gets you back into reality to kind of start over."
In the last six games, the Red Sox have scored 53 runs and are batting .357
(82-for-230) as a team. On the road trip, they have outscored the Twins and White Sox by a
44-19 margin.
Ross alluded to several veteran players drawing a line in the sand during the charter
flight to Minneapolis last Sunday night. The Red Sox are built to be a playoff contender,
and the way they played through the season's first two weeks, they looked nothing like
that.
"It was talked about," Ross said. "A lot of guys in here have played long enough where
you're going to go through tough times like that. That one (last Saturday) stung. That was
about the end of that. A few guys said it."
