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Just over a week ago, in a series at Tampa between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox, the benches cleared when Rays’ base runner Yunel Escobar traded words with Boston’s David Ross. Johnny Gomes of the Red Sox would then come in from left field and give a little shove to Escobar. This resulted in the players being ejected and the Rays beat the Sox 8-5 to sweep the series.
The three game series over this past weekend between the BoSox and the Rays was almost similar. The benches cleared and one team got swept, but this time it was the Red Sox doing the cleaning. Sunday’s finale ended with a 4-0 win for the Sox and the sweep of the series, but what did not end is the tension between these two teams. In the bottom of the fourth inning in the first game on Friday, David Price hit Boston’s Mike Carp;this brought out both benches, including David Ortiz, who was not at all pleased by the pitch. Ortiz was very angry with Price, so angry that several people had to hold him back. Oh Yeah! Maybe that is because in the bottom of the first, Price plunked Ortiz in the hip with a 94 MPH fastball. The Red Sox were almost out of coaches by the end of the game, but it did not matter who was making the calls, because the Sox were determined to win.
Tampa seemed to have put fuel in the tank for Boston in the series just over a week ago, as the Sox had dropped 10 straight. Since that series, the Red Sox have gone 7-1, with the lone loss coming tonight against the Cleveland Indians. During their 10-game skid, the Sox were batting .212, averaging almost eight hits and about 2.5 runs per game. Since getting swept by the Rays, the Sox have batted .274, getting around nine hits and five runs per game.
One thing the teams in the American League East did not want to happen was for the reigning World Series champs to catch fire, but it has happened. In a division that is still wide open, the Red Sox are in perfect position to take another shot at the division title. Even though they are still 6.5 games out of first, there is still over a half a season of baseball left. If the first place Toronto Blue Jays start to deal with injuries that have plagued their last few seasons, the AL East will be anyone’s division, and the Sox have the potential to get right back to where the left off a season ago.
AJ Risser is a writer for CouchRiderReport; you can follow him on twitter.