The Streak Ends--And a New one Begins

Well, since my last post, the Hose extended their win streak to seven with a bottom of the 8th 3 run blast by Danny Nava, aided by the live appearance of Neil Diamond to sing "Sweet Caroline", and then narrowly lost both ends of yesterday's twin-bill to the Royals. It was very emotional to see not only the Sox wearing the B Strong patch on their uni's, but to see also KC donning the same patch while it seemed every fan in the stands had a posterized copy. I can tell you, there's a computer printed version over my desk right now!
Tonight, they played host to the A's, one of last year's surprise teams--much of that surprise generated by former recent Sox players--Crisp, Reddick, and Moss, to whom Lowrie has been added. Trailing 2-1 in the 4th, the Sox took over the lead when Middlebrooks, who's been invisible since his three shot night vs the Jays, rifled one into the cheaps with two men aboard, making the score 4-2, Sox. After the A's got one of those back in their half of the next frame, the Sox basically put it out of reach in the bottom half. With ten players going to the plate and Napoli parking his shot deep to center with the sacks jammed, the Sox took off. Nap's shot was soon followed by Salty's double for an additional run, and the score was suddenly 9-3, Sox, and for all practical purposes, the game was over. True, the A's did make it interesting in the 8th, picking up a trey, two of those involving two of the previously mentioned ex-Sox, the outcome was never really in doubt after the Sox' five spot.
It took Nap a few games to get the hang of playing for the Sox instead of ruining them for the Rangers, but for the past week or two, he has been a monster. Tonight, he got ribbies 21-25, leaving him with the MLB lead in that category. These came on his slam and an early run producing two bagger. Other Sox heroes, names all recognizable for the Hose, included Papi (double and another RBI) and Jake (double and his league leading 9th swipe of the year). On the pitching side, although Doubront was a it wild (a pair of WP's), he was solid enough to win, particularly with continued strong support from the Sox pen. Wilson, Tazawa and Bailey all had hitless stints, Tazawa's being perfect. Bailey ended up with his foutrth save and these three now have ERA's, respectively of nothing. 0.93, and 1.74. Pretty impressive by any standard.