The Boston Red Sox won their sixth consecutive game Thursday night, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-5, at Fenway Park.
It also marked the seventh Red Sox win in 14 games played thus far versus the American League East, arguably Boston’s biggest hurdle last season when the club went 26-50 against the division. Now with a new-look lineup and a clean slate, the emphasis of putting wins on the board when facing clubs in Boston’s way in the standings remains in place.
Boston manager Alex Cora is applying that same importance after the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep over the Blue Jays, their first four-game sweep over an AL East team since 2018.
“I mentioned it last year. If we wanna get to where we wanna go, we have to be better in the division and that’s seven (wins) already,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I don’t know when was the last time we won seven last year. Probably August but we play good baseball.”
During Boston’s four-game set with Toronto, the Red Sox put on an offensive clinic, hitting .384 with a plus-13 run differential. And as has been the case early on this season, Cora was able to lean on his bullpen to close out the Blue Jays as Red Sox relievers combined for a 1.32 ERA.
The Red Sox also improved to 6-1 when facing fellow division clubs, at Fenway Park.
“We always talk about the division and playing good baseball at Fenway,” Cora explained. “We’ve only had one bad series here. It was the second one of the season against the (Pittsburgh) Pirates. But besides that, we’ve been solid here and the guys are doing a outstanding job.”
Boston, now third in the AL East at 19-14, won’t be seeing anyone in the division for a while, next doing so when the Red Sox host the Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game series starting June 2.
