Most had already written off the 2010 Boston Red Sox but take a look at who's the hottest team in baseball: that very same team that looked done in early May.
Boston (27-21) just finished what has to be one of the toughest 13 game stretches for any team this season with a 9-4 mark. Very impressive indeed and they capped it off with a 11-3 destruction of the Tampa Bay Rays (32-15) last night at Tropicana Field.
After the Rays-MLB's best team-had swept the Sox in April at Fenway, Boston repaid it with a sweep (albeit three games instead of four) of their own.
Outstanding starting pitching has been the crux of the upswing but last night, Adrian Beltre was the story with a career-high 6 RBI game. He had a solo homer (in the 2nd), a three-run bomb (off one knee, in the 3rd) and a two-run triple in the ninth.
John Lackey (5-3) outpitched Matt Garza (5-3) with 6.1 innings of work. He worked around eight hits and two earned runs with four walks and a strikeout. Garza, normally a Sox killer, wasn't his usual self as he gave up six earned runs on five hits with five walks and three strikeouts in five innings.
Outside of the team's recent great play, the other revelation has been David Ortiz. The guy that was written off by everyone in the world except Terry Francona has delivered, slugging nine homers in May. He was moved back to the number 3 spot last night (with Victor Martinez nursing a big toe injury) and he smacked a two-run homer in the fifth.
After finally getting back to third place in the AL East, Boston needs to continue to play well and for now, the schedule eases up significantly with home games against the Royals and A's followed by trips to Baltimore and Cleveland.
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