McAdam: Red Sox make a statement with shutout of Twins in series opener

A little more than a year ago, the Red Sox went into Houston and split a four-game series with the Astros.

With the benefit of hindsight, that doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. After all, the Red Sox would go on to win 108 games, then steamrolled over three of the best teams in baseball in October.

So a 2-2 record over four games in Houston? Big deal.

It was a big deal at the time because - stop me if you've heard this one before -- the Red Sox had largely fattened up on the dregs of the American League, while barely holding their own against better opponents. So, after dropping the first two games of the series, coming back to take the final two -- without Dustin Pedroia, who had just returned from the DL, only to go right back on three games later, and without Mookie Betts -- was a big deal.

The Red Sox proved something to themselves that weekend in Houston. They learned they could indeed play with the big boys -- in this case the defending world champions who had thoroughly embarrassed the Sox the previous October in the Division Series.

So, why is that relevant now?



Because Monday's 2-0 win over the Minnesota Twins had that same feel to it. Sure, the Sox had won five in a row coming in. But three of those had been achieved against the lowly Baltimore Orioles, a team so bad that wins against them should be somehow discounted.

And it wasn't just the Orioles. The previous road series, the Sox had also enjoyed a three-game sweep, and it, too, came against the A.L. underbelly in the persons of the Kansas City Royals.

Meanwhile, better teams -- i.e. winning teams -- carried a record of 23-16 against the Sox before Monday. So was the five-game winning streak and climbing five games over the .500 mark an accurate snapshot, or evidence that the Sox had been very good beating up the bad teams, and significantly less successful against the better ones?

It's doubtful that the 2-0 victory -- burnished by seven fabulous innings from Rick Porcello -- will allay all fears. It is just one game in mid-June, after all. No need to go overboard. Should the Sox win another and win the series, or manage to sweep the Twins, that will tell us far more.

But the win Monday shouldn't be dismissed either. Porcello took on a homer-crazed lineup and allowed just two extra-base hits (both doubles) in his seven innings. He didn't allow a baserunner to reach third base, which is an achievement against these Twins who are not accustomed to being shut down.

Since Jose Berrios was equally brilliant for the Twins, retiring 19 in a row at one point, there was no margin for error, giving the game a playoff feel.

The victory was noteworthy for another reason: the state of the Red Sox bullpen, or put more accurately, the availability of the Red Sox bullpen. Thanks to three games in the span of the previous six games in which the starter failed to get an out in the fourth inning, the Red Sox pen has been running on fumes, with upwards of 23 outs asked of them at times.

And when the relievers weren't supplying inning after inning in relief of a failed starter, they were charged with some high-leverage spots, like Sunday in Baltimore, when the Sox managed just two runs in the first eighth innings.

That meant that Cora was without Brandon Workman, Marcus Walden, Matt Barnes (all exhausted for usage) and Heath Hembree (on the IL). So Colten Brewer got the call for the eighth and Ryan Brasier, fresh off a stay on the bereavement list, had the ninth.

And it all worked out anyway. Not just a win, but a hard-fought, well-played win.

The Sox didn't pound the ball, but they did enough - one run in the first, another in the ninth -- to hold off the Twins.

"It was a big win for us,'' allowed Porcello.

Most important win of the year? That's premature, until the game (and the rest of the season) can be put in some proper context.

But for now, it's no stretch to suggest that it was the most impressive win of the season.