The Boston Red Sox finished a two-game sweep of the Major League-leading Atlanta Braves. With the series sweep, they have won their fifth series this month and improved to 14-5 this month which is the best record in major league baseball since the calendar flipped to July. They average six runs a game in this recent stretch which is second in the league trailing just the Dodgers; they have a team batting average of .299 which is first in the league, and an OPS of .862, which is also first in the league. The lineup has turned things around, as they are outscoring teams 104-76 during this 19-game stretch. The Red Sox this month have five players in the top 20 in OPS, with Triston Casas first with a 1.284 OPS, Rafael Devers sixth with a 1.166 OPS, Jarren Duran tenth with a 1.114 OPS, Justin Turner is 14th with a 1.040 OPS, and Masataka Yoshida is 19th with a .997 OPS. The Red Sox also have the same five players ranked in the top ten in batting average for July, with Durran, Devers, Yoshida, and Casas ranking fourth to seventh, and Turner is ninth; Durran has a .383, Devers is .379, Yoshida is .375, Casas is .365, and Turner has a .361 average. Those five players are also in the top 20 in wRC+ this month, with Casas first in the league with 239, Devers fourth with 212, Duran tenth with 200, Turner 15th with 177, and Yoshida 17th with 171. It’s great to see when half of your lineup is producing, and it is one of the main reasons that the Red Sox will be buyers for the trade deadline and are right in the thick of the playoff race. Next, the Red Sox will head out West for a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants starting Friday; let’s see if the Sox bats can travel well and stay hot.
