Sunday's game may have been the strangest the Red Sox have played all year.
Jon Lester was terrific in shutting out Tampa Bay, 4-0, striking out 12 over 7 innings.
But they lost Dustin Pedroia in the third inning after he was complaining loudly at the home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn over his strike zone and was tossed. (Both teams were chirping at this guy, as he was all over the place.) He was replaced by Garin Cecchini, who in his second at-bat, got his first MLB hit, an RBI double.
Add that to Alex Hassan, playing RF, getting his first MLB hit in his second at-bat of the game. That's the first Red Sox teammates getting their first MLB hits in the same game since 1975.
Brock Holt was playing out of position, at first base, and got four doubles, just the fourth Sox player ever to do that.(And just the second to get 4 doubles and a walk in one game.)
And if that wasn't enough, Pedroia, David Ortiz and Xander Bogaerts all went hitless.
Yes, youth was all over Fenway on Sunday, one day after Rubby de la Rosa pitched seven amazing innings in getting his first MLB win.
The Sox are red hot right now, winning their seventh straight, and are 27-29. It's just the third time in MLB history a team has lost at least 10 straight and come right back and won seven straight.
And Tampa Bay, with their big mouths and Napoleon complexes, can consider themselves paid back for all the shenanigans of the last week. Since the original dustup in St. Pete on May 25th, they have not won a game, while the Sox have not lost.
Now it's off to Cleveland for three with the Indians, and then they move on to Detroit and Baltimore on the nine-game trip.