As the Red Sox continue their slow but steady climb back toward respectability -- they're now two games under .500 after a 16-7 pasting of the White Sox Thursday night -- it's not too difficult to cite the areas where they've shown the most improvement.
Here are three of them:
1. Everybody hits.
For the first five weeks of the season, if J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts or Rafael Devers didn't carry them offensively, they didn't win. It wasn't long ago that the team had a handful of regulars hitting near the .200 mark. That made it difficult if not outright impossible to sustain rallies. Remember all the close games the Sox lost because they couldn't produce a hit in a key situation?
That's no longer the case. The Big Three continue to mash, but now, the team is getting contributions from others, up and down the lineup. Leadoff hitter Kike Hernandez had his second leadoff homer in the last three games Thursday, invoking reminders of the kind of dynamic element he provided in the second half last season. He's now hit in six straight and has collected 13 hits over his last 10 games.
Meanwhile, the bottom half of the lineup is stirring. Alex Verdugo had a four-hit night Thursday and, for the series, had six hits, including three doubles. Both doubles Thursday came off lefties, which is also encouraging. Verdugo has been hitting fifth for much of the season, but hasn't provided the hitters in front of him with much protection. That's starting to change.
Christian Vazquez has had far better at-bats of late. He reached base eight times in the Chicago series and had to multi-hit games.
And, of course, there's the Trevor Story phenomenon. He homered, again, Thursday, giving him seven homers in the last seven games. And precisely because The Big Three continue to do damage in front of him on a regular basis, he's getting plenty of opportunities to knock in runs. He has 32 in May alone.
"I really feel every time I go to hit, there's one or two guys on,'' said Story. "That's a credit to everyone giving me a chance, an opportunity to drive them in. For the past two weeks, up and down the lineup, it's been a group effort.''
What we're seeing, however belatedly, is how robust this lineup can be when there are contributions from nearly every spot -- and not just three of them.
2. The bullpen has become more dependable.
When Michael Wacha hit a bit of a wall in the fifth inning, allowing his fourth and fifth runs of the night after just 4.1, it was time to lean on the bullpen. Not long ago, that would have been enough to induce a lot of anxiety. But more recently, the bullpen has fallen into a much more reliable groove when it comes to supplying bulk innings.
(Late inning save situations, as witnessed as recently as Sunday when the Sox blew yet another ninth-inning lead, are still problematic. But that's for another day).
On Thursday night, the Sox first turned to John Schreiber, who closed out the fifth without incident, then returned to mow down the White Sox again, retiring all five hitters he faced. In 11 appearances, he's yet to allow an earned run and he hasn't issued a single walk. Opposing hitters are batting .116 (5-for-43) against him. Next came Tyler Danish, who also turned in a shutout inning.
Matt Barnes imploded in the eighth, walking four in a row, but he was bailed out by Hirokasu Sawamura. In all, the Boston pen has an ERA of 1.11 over the last six games,
Moreover, five different relievers have ERAs of 2.65 or lower.
3. They've learned to pile on.
For all of April and into May, it seemed like there would be two or three games a week in which the Red Sox would race out to a lead early, then the offense would stall out completely, unable to add to their early total.
Meanwhile, the opponents would claw back, and late in games (or in extra innings), they would find a way to push the winning run across.
But because the offense is starting to click everywhere, the Sox can score runs by the bunches -- early in games, in the middle and late.
Over the last two-plus weeks, the Red Sox have scored double figures in runs four times and four other times, scored seven or more runs.
Those kinds of offensive explosions signal a team that is relentless -- a word Alex Cora used to describe his lineup Tuesday night -- and isn't going to leave anything to chance.
Thursday offered a perfect example. After jumping out to a 6-0 lead, it looked to be an easy night. Then, the White Sox hinted at a comeback with five runs off Wacha. So how did the Sox respond? By scoring nine runs over the final three innings, forcing the White Sox to turn infielder Josh Harrison to pitch the ninth in a blowout.