Mookie Betts had already started to make some noise as a potential AL MVP candidate this season, and he added to his case on Tuesday.
Behind Betts' strong performance, the Boston Red Sox were able to defeat the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday by a final score of 5-3. Betts hit two home runs, driving in all five of Boston's runs.
The 23-year-old continues his dominance against Baltimore this season. In just five games at Camden Yards, Betts now has seven home runs, ten hits, and 13 RBIs. On May 31st in Baltimore, he hit three home runs in that game, and followed that performance with two more dingers on June 1st. The right-fielder also hit three home runs on Sunday, joining Ted Williams as the only Red Sox players to have multiple games with three home runs.
Betts now has five home runs and 13 RBIs this week. It's Tuesday. If a player hit five home runs and 13 RBIs in a month, they'd probably consider it a solid month. Betts did it in three days.
As of now, it appears as if the only person standing in the way of Betts taking home the AL MVP is Jose Altuve. He leads baseball with 167 hits and a .362 average, also tallying 19 homers, 73 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases. Betts is hitting .315 with 28 homers, 89 RBIs, 93 runs, and 18 stolen bases. It may be a tight race to keep your eye on for the rest of the season, but if Betts continues to perform as he has this week, it would not be a surprise for him to be the first Red Sox player to win the award since Dustin Pedroia in 2008.
After blowing an opportunity in the third, Boston gets on the board in the fifth
Yovani Gallardo got the nod on Tuesday, hoping to continue his solid month of August. He got through the first and second innings easily, but ran into trouble in the third.
Despite retiring Brock Holt and Andrew Benintendi to kick off the inning, he allowed consecutive singles to Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts, then allowed David Ortiz to reach on a walk. This brought up Betts, but Gallardo managed to retire the all-star to keep the game scoreless.
Gallardo got through the fourth inning without any harm, but Boston finally got the scoring started in the fifth. Benintendi continues to enjoy success in the major leagues, as he started off the inning with a double. Pedroia followed, and nearly broke the tie with a line drive up the middle, but it deflected off Gallardo right to the shortstop J.J. Hardy, who would retire Pedroia at first.
Betts came to the plate with two away, and hit his first homer of the day, a three-run shot to give Boston a 3-0 lead.
Long day for the Red Sox bullpen
Eduardo Rodriguez received the start for the Red Sox, looking to continue his recent success. He did just that, as he kept Baltimore hitless through four innings. However, during Steve Pearce's at-bat to begin the fifth inning, Rodriguez immediately began showing discomfort, and departed the game. It was later announced he left with left hamstring tightness.
This brought in the Red Sox bullpen, which has been brutal as of late. Matt Barnes was the first to toe the rubber, and retired seven straight hitters after yielding a leadoff walk to Pearce.
The streak ended in the seventh, the lone inning the bullpen ran into trouble. He walked Mark Trumbo and allowed a single to Pearce with one away, leading to him exiting the game. Manager John Farrell selected to make the move for Fernando Abad out of the 'pen against the lefty Chris Davis, but walked him on four pitches. Matt Wieters followed, and brought home both Trumbo and Pearce on an RBI single to make it a 3-2 game.
Brad Ziegler was the next member out of the bullpen for the Red Sox, and after striking out Hardy, Hyun Soo Kim singled and Adam Jones walked to tie the game. He struck out Jonathon Schoop to end the inning, leaving the game tied at 3-3 through seven innings.
Betts does it again
Brad Brach came in for the O's in the eighth, asked to set down the heart of the order for the Red Sox. Ortiz led off the inning, hitting a sharp liner to the second-baseman Schoop, but Schoop misplayed it to allow "Big Papi" to reach.
This proved to be costly, as Betts then hammered his second home run of the day to put Boston on top by a score of 5-3.
Craig Kimbrel received a save opportunity in the ninth, and he needed just nine pitches to convert on his 21st save of the season.