Sports Final: Is Xander Bogaerts Becoming One Of Baseball's Best Hitters?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox lineup is red hot right now, scoring runs at will over the last week.
The team just wrapped up at 6-1 home stand where they averaged over 10 runs per game, hitting an astounding .369 with 28 doubles and 13 homers.
Jackie Bradley Jr. is riding a 21-game hitting streak. David Ortiz has five homers and 14 RBIs in 12 games in May, including an 11th inning, walk-off double to give Boston a 6-5 win over the Astros on Saturday.
But maybe no one is hotter at the plate than shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who blasted a three-run home in Boston's 10-9 win over Houston on Sunday. He leads the team with a .338 average and 53 hits, and is hitting a ridiculous .400 with 40 hits in his last 23 games.
We knew Bogaerts was going to be a great hitter, but he's starting to emerge as one of the best in the game. 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti joined Dan Roche on WBZ-TV's Sports Final on Sunday night, and though he isn't ready to give Bogaerts the title of "best hitter in the game" just yet, he's pleased with the advances we've seen from the shortstop's bat.
"I don't go that far because we're talking about Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera and Bryce Harper. But what we've seen the last week, him driving the ball a lot more, if that continues he's rapidly moving up the list," said Mazz. "You have to be able to do it all if you want to be the best hitter in the game, that means power, average, situation, all of it. But the jump we've seen from him, it's part of the progress."
Mazz is OK if the power numbers don't catch up to the rest of Bogaerts' offensive production. He is currently on pace to hit 24 round trippers this season after hitting just seven homers in 2015.
"I'm OK with doubles and triples; I don't think he's going to be a 30 home run guy and he doesn't need to be," said Mazz. "Consistently he should be between 15-25, somewhere in that window."
Mazz also touched on Ortiz's start to his final season, Clay Buchholz's future in the Boston rotation, and Sunday's brawl between the Blue Jays and Rangers in Texas. Check out the full discussion in the video above, and catch Sports Final every Sunday night at 11:35 p.m. on WBZ-TV!
