The Red Sox may have saved their season after a thrilling 8-6 victory over the Yankees in the Bronx on Saturday night.
The one thing Boston could not afford, heading into August, was a sweep at the hands of its archrival — and no matter the outcome of Sunday night's game, the team has at least avoided that. Yes, the Red Sox are still a game under .500 and still five games out of a wild card spot. But hopefully they can take another game on Sunday night and use that to propel themselves forward into the final two months of the season.
Leading the way lately has been Dustin Pedroia — and whether he's been putting on a laser show or hitting balls to the moon, what's not up for debate is that the second baseman has been scorching. During the past week, Pedroia has put up a .348 average, slammed two homers, driven in three runs and scored five times.
Nearly as hot at the dish has been Pedro Ciriaco, who's shaken off a slump after his white-hot start to get right back in the swing of things. He's collected five hits in his last three games — including a go-ahead triple in the ninth inning on Saturday — with three runs scored and a pair of stolen bases.
But the Yankees have a hot hand of their own in Mark Teixeira, who victimized Vicente Padilla for a long game-tying home run in the eighth prior to Ciriaco's heroics. With the homer, the first baseman became the sixth player in major league history to have at least 20 home runs in each of his first 10 seasons. He's also hitting .348 in the last week, to go along with seven RBIs and four runs scored.
Here are the Red Sox' and Yankees' temperatures for Sunday, July 29.
Red Sox
Dustin Pedroia 87
Pedro Ciriaco 85
Adrian Gonzalez 85
Will Middlebrooks 84
Nick Punto 71
Ryan Sweeney 66
Jarrod Saltalamacchia 65
Jacoby Ellsbury 61
Daniel Nava 60
Cody Ross 57
Kelly Shoppach 54
Carl Crawford 52
Mike Aviles 44
Yankees
Mark Teixeira 82
Chris Stewart 79
Jayson Nix 75
Ichiro Suzuki 72
Raul Ibanez 68
Russell Martin 68
Robinson Cano 67
Curtis Granderson 66
Derek Jeter 64
Nick Swisher 61
Eric Chavez 59
Andruw Jones 51
