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The Boston Red Sox did it again Monday night as they used a grand slam (their third grand slam in the last two games) by Kyle Schwarber – as well as three other homers sprinkled through the rest of the lineup – to help power them to a 12-3 win over the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS.
They now lead the series 2-1 and can really take control of it tonight when they face Astros pitcher Zack Greinke, who hasn’t started a game since Sept. 19 and has pitched just one inning in the playoffs.
That’s not a great setup for the Astros and it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if the Red Sox just continued powering their way through the AL West champs.
This run that the Red Sox have been on lately is just downright laughable, and they’ve been enjoying every second of it. Since a 5-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of their ALDS they have won 5 of their last 6 (the lone loss was a 5-4 defeat to the Astros in Game 1) and have scored a combined 51 runs in those six games.
51 runs!
In six playoff games!
The Dodgers, who won 106 games this year, have 27 runs in their 8 playoff games.
The Braves have just 20 runs in their six playoff games.
That’s just some bananas stuff.
If you’ve watched at all you know that Kiké Hernández has been hitting over .500 during the playoffs and has just become a machine over the past few weeks.
But he hasn’t been the only guy raking for a lineup that has seen just about everyone contribute.
The three grand slams – by Rafael Devers, JD Martinez, and Schwarber – are the most grand slams any team has ever hit in a playoff series.
They now have hit 20 home runs in their eight playoff games this year. 20 home runs! They were just sixth in the AL (10th in all of MLB) in home runs during the regular season and now they’re regularly rounding the bases like it’s no big deal.
The Astros, by the way, are in second with 9 home runs.
Oh, and Boston’s 95 hits in the playoffs this year are 31 more hits than any other team.
Ridiculous.
All of this comes from a team that had to rally on the final day of the season just to secure a spot in the postseason. Now they are two wins away from a trip to the World Series, which nobody saw coming after the team traded away Mookie Betts before the start of the 2020 season.
There’s still a lot of baseball left in this ALCS and we all know that bats can go cold but right now the Red Sox bats might be the hottest bats we’ve ever seen in postseason play.
Not a bad time to go on a bit of a run.
Quick hits: NBA watchablity rankings… Bills made the right call by going for it… Henry hits high speed on 76-yard TD… And more.
– With the 2021-22 NBA season kicking off tonight, Charles Curtis ranks all 30 teams from least to most watchable.
– Charles also explains why Bills coach Sean McDermott absolutely made the right call on the failed QB sneak at the end of Buffalo’s loss to Tennessee last night.
– Speaking of the Titans, Derrick Henry ran for three more TDs last night and hit a ridiculous speed on one of them.
– Ben Simmons didn’t have much fun in his first practice back with the 76ers yesterday.
– I’m still thinking about these videos of Russell Wilson running a 2-minute offense by himself before Sunday night’s game.
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