Red Sox Week in Review: A Tale of Two Sweeps

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Boston Red Sox Weekly Snapshot

Record Last Week: 3-3

Runs Scored Last Week: 27

Runs Surrendered Last Week: 23

Standings:

5th in AL East

13 GB First Place

Transactions:

05/19/26: Red Sox sent LHP Danny Coulombe on a rehab assignment to the Worcester Red Sox.

05/22/26: Red Sox selected the contract of RHP Tyron Guerrero from the Worcester Red Sox.

05/22/26: Red Sox optioned RHP Zack Kelly to Worcester Red Sox.

05/24/26: Red Sox optioned LHP Tyler Samaniego to Worcester Red Sox.

05/25/26: Red Sox activated LHP Danny Coulombe from the 15-day injured list.

Scores:

Game 46 (05/18): BOS 3, KC 1

Game 47 (05/19): BOS 7, KC 1

Game 48 (05/20): BOS 4, KC 3

Game 49 (05/22): BOS 6, MIN 8

Game 50 (05/23): BOS 2, MIN 4

Game 51 (05/24): BOS 5, MIN 6

Series Breakdown/Highlights

Royals Series: The Red Sox have swept two teams this year and both were penciled in to win the AL Central at one point or another. That should give any fan of this team something to grab onto to celebrate but, both the Tigers and the Royals are pretty much in the same boat as the Red Sox are in right now, so sweeping the latter in late May doesn’t feel like the giant victory that it should.

Game one saw Willson Contreras stay hot and smoke a long home run into the rain soaked night in Kansas City behind a six-inning, nine strikeout performance from Sonny Gray. Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and Aroldis Chapman held down the back third of the game and put it away easily. In game two, the offense woke up thanks to a ninth-inning onslaught that was sparked by a Jarren Duran three-run home run. Ranger Suarez didn’t look his typical dominant self during the game, only going 4 ⅓ innings with three strikeouts, but he was serviceable enough to make sure the game didn’t get out of hand. Game three saw familiar face Michael Wacha toss six innings of one-run baseball, until Duran went deep against a Royals bullpen that has been struggling all season. The sweep should have marked a turnaround in the Red Sox’s season as they were about to matchup with the underperforming Twins to kick off the next homestand, but things don’t always work out how they should.

Twins Series: It’s safe to say that the Red Sox can’t play cohesive baseball against the Twins. In back-to-back series against middling AL Central teams, the Sox should have back-to-back sweeps. Instead, they are heading into their series against the Braves after being swept by the Twins.

In game one, the Fenway Green magic wasn’t to be found. Payton Tolle pitched six innings while giving up three earned runs and striking out nine. Like almost every other start for the young southpaw, this should have been a victory. Slaten came on in relief and promptly gave up two home runs, good for four earned runs. The offense failed to pick Slaten up after the meltdown and game one was a loss. In game two, Brayan Bello moved back to his second inning entrance behind Jovani Moran to decent success. It’s become clear that Moran likely doesn’t need to act as an opener again because he has allowed multiple earned runs each time he’s done it, but Bello seems to operate at his best when he doesn’t actually start the game. He tossed five innings with five strikeouts. The offense went mostly cold, save for RBIs from Ceddanne Rafaela and, shockingly, Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Game three arguably shouldn’t have been played, but that was a call that Major League Baseball made since the two clubs won’t see each other again this season. The weather prevented clean baseball from either club, but the Twins came out on top after a fluke-filled bottom of the ninth came up just short for the Sox. Gray had his worst start since returning from the IL, only tossing four innings with three earned runs and four strikeouts. The two bright spots from this game were that Masataka Yoshida hit his first home run of the season, and Marcelo Mayer finally started at shortstop. This team is built to play great defense behind superb pitching. Both the defense and the bullpen let this team down in each game of this series.