Pick your poison.
For a glimpse of what has made the Red Sox lineup so overpowering through the first 44 games of 2016, one need look no further than Indians manager Terry Francona. On Friday afternoon, before the start of Cleveland’s three-game series against his former team, Francona contemplated whether his team might treat Jackie Bradley Jr. differently given his four-week streak of games with hits.
Would the Indians spend more time game-planning for him prior to the series? Would the team alter its pitching plan to neutralize him?
“Are you kidding me?’’ said Francona, with a laugh that expressed both respect and bewilderment. “He’s being consistent, but their whole lineup . . . you kidding me? [David] Ortiz is taking up more [game-planning] time.’’
Yet the Indians did take a different approach with Bradley. He got one hit in each game of the series to extend his hitting streak to 27 games, but Cleveland walked the center fielder a whopping six times in 13 plate appearances. After the series, Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway acknowledged to the Boston Herald that the Indians made the decision to pitch around Bradley.
Still, Cleveland couldn’t just try to account for Bradley in hopes that doing so would derail the Red Sox offense. After an 0-for-4 night with two strikeouts on Friday, Ortiz went 6 for 7 the rest of the weekend with two walks, three doubles, and a homer. Ortiz is on pace for 70 doubles (which would be a major league record) and 114 extra-base hits, which would be the third most in major league history, just behind what 26-year-old Babe Ruth did in 1921 and what 24-year-old Lou Gehrig did for the vaunted 1927 Yankees. And when he’s doing his damage, Ortiz is delivering with runners on base.
In front of him, Mookie Betts went 7 for 14 with three doubles and two homers during the series. Xander Bogaerts was “just’’ 6 for 14 with a double. Travis Shaw was held to a 2-for-13 weekend with a pair of doubles, but his Fenway OPS remains 1.017.
To this point, there is no letup. The Sox have five regulars hitting above .300 and seven with an OPS of .800 or better, both unmatched totals in the majors.
It is a lineup that attacks in waves, particularly at Fenway, where the Red Sox are averaging 6.7 runs per game this season (no other team has more than 5.5 runs per game in their home park). The ability to drill ball after ball off the Wall or into the bullpen has created a huge advantage at Fenway, where the Sox’ 16-9 record would project to 52 wins in their home park — the sort of dominant performance in Boston that typically characterizes playoff entrants.
When visiting teams leave Fenway Park, their pitching staffs are left to ice their shoulders and their managers are left to recover from a few games’ worth of headaches.
