Gray Steadies the Ship as Sox Blank Guardians

Wednesday night at Fenway was hopefully a sneak peek at what a playoff game started by Sonny Gray might look like!

The right-handed starter earned his 18th win of the season by pitching six dominant innings in which he surrendered only four hits and one walk while striking out three Guardians. Gray was in control throughout the entire start and allowed only one runner to reach second base all evening. It was the kind of performance that could make even the staunchest Red Sox naysayer believe that Gray could give the Sox a chance next week in the Bronx.

After Gray departed, Chad Tracy began the carousel of dominant bullpen arms. Tyron Guerrero got the seventh inning, and after he walked the leadoff man, he punched out the next three batters without throwing a single pitch outside the strike zone. Garrett Whitlock got his familiar eighth inning, and although he allowed two runners to reach base, a masterfully spun 4-6-3 double play started by Andrew Monasterio dispatched the threat.

The ninth was locked down by Aroldis Chapman, who seemed to be a whole new man after his 10-day hiatus! The Cuban Missile struck out all three batters he faced while displaying a combination of 98 mph heaters and a devastating splitter that he used as the out pitch for all three batters.

While the pitching staff continued to do its usual thing, so did the offense, unfortunately! One run over eight innings despite collecting a dozen hits. As a collective, they were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, and all 12 hits were singles.

On a positive note, four members of the lineup came through with multi-hit games, including Jarren Duran, who scored the lone run of the game, and he wasn’t even in the starting lineup. Nick Sogard, Jahmai…