Coming off of the sweep in Detroit that put the Sox 1.5 games back of the first-place Tigers over the weekend, you heard “we need to sweep the Twins” a lot.
Sweeping a team, no matter how good or bad they are, is always a tall task. However, the Sox were able to rise to the challenge and sweep Minnesota, despite trailing in all 3 games.
It was all high fives for the Sox on the brief homestand. Photo courtesy SBNation.com
The 3-7 road trip last week was definitely disappointing, but like I said on Twitter (@Grab_Some_Bench) a few times, if the Sox could bounce back by putting together a good week of baseball, it would be all but forgotten. And luckily they’re on pace to do just that.
With the trade deadline approaching, it seems like Kenny Williams may add, despite all ready going out and getting Kevin Youkilis and Brett Myers. No matter how the team looks come next week, this team has proven that they can overcome adverse situations to win ball games in important times.
There are some small injury question marks surrounding Kevin Youkilis and A.J. Pierzynski, but if they are both fine in the near future, then the team is certainly in good shape; especially with Alejandro De Aza, Adam Dunn, and Paul Konerko seemingly heating up.
Throughout this series, Dunn went 5 for 13, Konerko 8 for 11, and De Aza 4 for 11, but all had a lot of good at bats and timely hits. If they can keep this up, the ceiling is very high for the Sox offense, given nothing too bad transpires with AJ and Youk and while Rios, Ramirez, and Viciedo continue their hot hitting.
Jake Peavy was good once again today, too, giving the team a hard-fought quality start like he has so many times this year. It’s certainly been a blast to watch.
Peavy moved to 8-6 Wednesday afternoon with the win. Photo courtesy USA Today
It’ll be a tough series in Texas this weekend, that’s for sure. Chris Sale takes on Yu Darvish on Friday night in the battle of the first-time AL All Stars.
But again, the main takeaway from this Minnesota series is that Ventura’s Sox were able to bounce back from adversity and look like a good, confident club like they have for most of 2012. Hopefully it carries over in Arlington starting Friday.