Red Sox Are Handling Top Pitchers With Ease

No matter what you throw at the Boston Red Sox, well, they seem to be able to handle it just fine.

Look no further than their record against the five Cy Young candidates they've face this far: 5-0.

It started when the Red Sox faced the Tampa Bay Rays' Tyler Glasnow, who has been mowing down batters like no one else in the American League. The man has allowed only two runs on the season, for Pete's sake! But one of them came against the Red Sox, who went on to win by a 6-5 count in 12 innings.

There's more.

"In short order, the Red Sox also defeated Minnesota's vaunted twosome of Kenta Maeda and Jose Berrios before laying the wood to Chicago's Lucas Giolito, who saw his ERA more than double after the Red Sox torched him for eight runs in one-plus innings on Monday," wrote John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston.

After that, they used one big inning to scoot past Toronto left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu in a 4-2 victory.

"We've been facing good pitching since the first day of spring training," manager Alex Cora told reporters. "We're talking about the Twins, the Braves, the Rays, we played them a lot and they're great. I do believe it's good. This is what it's all about. You're going to run into stretches like this, that you're going to face the best of the best, and you have to grind it out."

In other words, facing a Red Sox lineup that features Enrique Hernandez, Alex Verdugo, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Hunter Renfroe and the rest is likely to make opposing pitchers -- regardless of accomplishments -- shake in their spikes.

"Sometimes it's actually easier to buy into the game-planning," Cora said. "Don't try to do too much, go the other way. When it's the ace of the other staff, it seems like guys buy into it constantly. It's a lot easier to get off your plan when it's a No. 5 or a guy that doesn't have plus-plus stuff or plus command."

Through Wednesday, Boston was 12-7 and tied with the Oakland A's for the best record in the AL.

Written by
Sam Amico spent 15 years covering the NBA for Sports Illustrated, FOX Sports and NBA.com, along with a few other spots, and currently runs his own basketball website on the side, FortyEightMinutes.com.