Game 116 Recap: Red Sox 16, Diamondbacks 2

The Red Sox completed the sweep with a dominant victory. That’s more like it.

Top Play (WPA)

The Red Sox scored a ton of runs early and often on Sunday afternoon, but none were more important (by WPA) than the first two. In the bottom of the first inning, with the game still scoreless, Mookie Betts demolished a Zack Greinke fastball that was left up in the zone over everything in left field (+.164) to give Boston a 2-0 lead. The team would never relinquish that advantage. This home run was just the start of an incredible game for Betts, but we’ll get to that later.

Bottom Play (WPA)

When games are as lopsided as this one, there aren’t a lot of high-leverage plays. It stands to reason that Arizona didn’t have many chances to really make a game out of this contest. In fact, their best chance came right at the start, after Jean Segura lead things off with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error. It looked like the Diamondbacks would be the first to draw blood. Instead, Michael Bourn struck out (-.041), Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to the pitcher (-.034) and Jake Lamb struck out swinging (-.032). That was basically the end of the game.

Mookie Betts is Amazing

I tried to come up with something a little more creative for this subhead, but this sums it up as well as possible, I think. As mentioned above, Betts started Boston’s scoring off with a two-run home run. He’d hit two more dingers before the game was over, finishing the game going 4-6 with four runs scored and eight RBI. The right fielder is now 530 plate appearances into his season and is hitting .313/.353/.561 with 26 home runs. After this huge game, there is some talk of him creeping into MVP conversations. It’s hard to see him winning given the seasons from Mike Trout and Jose Altuve, but if he keeps hitting like this he’ll at least appear on just about every ballot.

The Bats Are Alive Again

Boston has obviously had one of the best lineups in the league all year, but they’ve been a frustrating bunch lately. Their AVG and OBP hasn’t suffered too much in the recent stretch, but they’ve been atrocious with runners in scoring position, particularly with the bases loaded. Betts was the best player in the game, but the Red Sox got contributions from up and down the lineup. Jackie Bradley hit a home run. Dustin Pedroia had five hits. Hanley Ramirez had three of his own. Andrew Benintendi continued to impress with two hits from the nine spot. This was the most impressive the lineup has been since the All-Star break, and it came against Zack Greinke.

We’ll Just Call This Rick Porcello-ing

Porcello hasn’t had the highs that someone like Steven Wright has had this season, but he’s probably been the MVP of the Red Sox rotation. While he’s been far from dominant and won’t garner any Cy Young attention — even in this unfathomably weak AL class — he’s been the very definition of solid. Every time he takes the hill, you can basically bank on six or seven innings with no more than three or four runs allowed, keeping the offense in the game every start. He was even better on Sunday, allowing just one run over seven innings with four strikeouts and zero walks. That contract is looking better every day.

Coming Next

The Red Sox have a brutal stretch coming up this week, some of it due to poor scheduling and some of it due to Mother Nature. They have a make-up game in Cleveland today, then travel to Baltimore for two night games before heading to Detroit for a three-game series that kicks off with an afternoon game. They’ll look to carry this momentum against the Indians with Drew Pomeranz facing off against Josh Tomlin. First pitch is Monday at 1:10 ET.

Photo by Winslow Townson/USA TODAY