Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers On Pace To Make History Together For Red Sox
BOSTON (CBS) -- As a group, the Red Sox have been moderately toasty of late, winners of nine of their last 12 games. After completing a brief two-game sweep in Colorado on Wednesday night, they're still five games out of a wild-card spot. Yet even if they do miss the playoffs, the organization will be entering the upcoming winter feeling mighty confident in the young left side of the infield.
Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts collected three hits apiece on Wednesday night in Denver. Two of those hits for Bogaerts were homers, with the other one going for a double. Devers added a triple and a homer to his incredible season totals.
For Bogaerts, the longballs and his three runs driven in put him at 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the season. The Red Sox have 28 games remaining in the season.
Devers isn't far behind. With his MLB-leading 174 hits, Devers has already topped the 100-RBI mark with 104. And with 28 homers, he's inching ever so close to reaching the 30-homer mark himself.
Bogaerts currently has 46 doubles to his name; Devers has 48. Provided they each put a few more doubles down on their stat sheet, and provided Devers launches those next two bombs, he and Bogaerts will become the first teammates ever to each put up 30 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season.
The Red Sox noted on Thursday that no other players in baseball this year are on pace to hit the 30-homer/50-double mark this season.
Bogaerts also became the first Red Sox shortstop to hit the 30/100 milestones since Nomar Garciaparra in 1998.
With Oakland and Tampa Bay both losing, the Red Sox were able to pick up a game in the wild-card race. They sit five games behind Oakland, with the Rays just a game back of the A's. Despite the positive upturn in recent weeks, the Red Sox' odds of making the playoffs are still just a tick under 10 percent. Surely, it remains a long shot.
At the very least, though, the biggest positive by far to emerge from this season has been the massive strides taken by the 26-year-old Bogaerts and the 22-year-old Devers, both of whom will anchor arguably the best left side of any infield in baseball for the next half-decade or longer.
