Newsflash: The 2018 Boston Red Sox are really good at this baseball thing.
Alright, we’ve all known that for a while about Alex Cora‘s squad, but Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves was just more proof of how ridiculous they’ve been over the past five-plus months.
In a game that Ronald Acuña Jr. immediately took over by hitting yet another leadoff home run, Boston was looking at a 7-1 deficit heading into the eighth inning. They proceeded to go off for six runs and tie the game, only to surrender the lead back to Atlanta in the bottom of that frame.
All this did, though, was set up Brandon Phillips to be the hero in his Red Sox debut by hitting the eventual game-winning two-run bomb in the top of the ninth to complete a ridiculous comeback.
The Red Sox overcame their largest deficit of the season to improve to 97-44, but this had a little more significance than that. Prior to this game, having a six-run lead heading into the eighth inning meant the game was over:
MLB teams were 487-0 when leading by 6 runs entering the 8th inning this season.. That streak came to an end as the @RedSox erase a 7-1 deficit to beat the @Braves, 9-8..
— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) September 5, 2018
That was quite a long winning streak Boston snapped. It’s been a little while since the Red Sox accomplished something like this on the road, too:
The @RedSox were down 7-1 to the Braves after seven innings today but came back to win, 9-8.
It is the second time in the last 100 years they have won a road game after trailing by 6+ runs through seven innings or later (also June 8, 1937 in Cleveland).#DirtyWater
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) September 5, 2018
Ipso facto, they’re on another level right now, and have been head-and-shoulders better than everyone else for most of the regular season. And unless they experience the most catastrophic collapse in baseball history, this will be their first 100-win season since 1946. That team went 104-50 and ended up losing in the World Series.
This organization has endured a couple disappointing trips to October in recent years, so while this is all great, it won’t mean much if they can’t make a prolonged postseason run. But for now, they get to revel in this victory for another day before welcoming the Houston Astros to Fenway Park on Friday, which could very well be a preview of what’s to come in about a month.
About Matt Musico
Matt currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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