McAdam: Three off-day Red Sox thoughts

The Red Sox are enjoying their first off-day since June 4 and second since May 22 and are in Minneapolis today before starting the final series of their three-city trip against the Twins Tuesday.

For now, here are three thoughts on the Sox.



1.The Red Sox are on a near-record home run pace for the franchise.

The lack of power was a huge flaw in the 2017 Red Sox. They finished dead last in the American League in that category with 168 and were 27th overall among the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, for an average of 1.04 homers per game.

Landing J.D. Martinez obviously helped. He's second in all of baseball with 22 homers and stands a good chance to smash the franchise record for most homers by a Red Sox player (24) before the end of June, currently jointly held by Ted Williams, Mo Vaughn, Jose Canseco and Manny Ramirez.

To put things in perspective, should Martinez break the record by the end of June, he will also have hit more homers this year than any Red Sox player did all of last year, when Mookie Betts hit 24.

But the power surge has been more than Martinez. The Red Sox are the only team in baseball with six players in double figures (Martinez, Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Mitch Moreland), and thus, are on pace to have at least six players finish the season with 20 or homers. Last year, they had three (Betts, Moreland and Hanley Ramirez).

After 73 games, the Sox are on pace for 230 homers, which would come close to the franchise record of 238 set in 2003.

And their home runs per game stands at 1.42, an increase of nearly half a home run per game compared to last season.

2. Starting rotation continues to be dominant

On Sunday, when Eduardo Rodriguez limited Seattle to two runs over six innings, it marked the 12th time in the last 14 games that the Red Sox starter has allowed two earned runs or fewer.

And this strong starting pitching is not a recent development. Since May 10, about five weeks ago, the Red Sox' rotation has a 2.96 ERA. For the season, the Sox starters rank eighth overall and third in the American League with a 3.62 ERA.

The current five-man group (Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Steven Wright and Eduardo Rodriguez ) sport a 33-13 with a 3.22 ERA, and every one has an ERA under 4.00.

3. Boston is holding its own with elite teams.

Following the Red Sox split in Seattle, the Red Sox are now exactly .500 7-7 in 14 games against the three best teams in the American League: Mariners (2-2), Astros (2-2) and the Yankees (3-3).

Add in the other teams they've played with winning records (Atlanta, Los Angeles), and the Sox are 12-8 against teams currently above .500.

(Side note: what does it say about the current state of baseball that, after two and a half months, the Red Sox have played just 27 percent of their games against teams with winning records?)

That success will be further put to the test after the Sox leave Minnesota. They have four consecutive series coming against winning teams: Mariners, Angels, Yankees and Nationals, for a total of 12 games.