The Boston Red Sox brought a four-game sweep of the Yankees home with them Monday, and Fenway Park got the next test right away: the Washington Nationals, with a matchup built as much on form as on momentum. Boston had just walked off the Yankees on Sunday, but this game still hinged on whether that surge could keep carrying against a Nationals lineup that had traveled in with a hot bat and a live total.
For readers searching Nationals Vs Red Sox, the name at the center was Luis García Jr. He had been the hottest piece in Washington's recent run, with six home runs and a 1.804 OPS over his last seven, yet the expected lineup had him sitting. That mattered because Washington had already been swinging well enough against left-handed pitching, hitting.267/.342/.428 with a.770 OPS, 26 home runs and 78 extra-base hits, while James Wood and CJ Abrams gave the club the kind of power and speed that could change a game quickly.
Boston's case for carrying over the Yankees sweep was more fragile than the record line suggested. The Red Sox had still been only.237/.305/.374 with a.678 OPS against right-handed pitching, even after the weekend breakthrough, which is why the pitching matchup stayed relevant. On the other side, the Red Sox had a way to attack Miles Mikolas, whose 5.24 ERA and 1.29 WHIP over 77.1 innings came with 83 hits allowed, 16 home runs, 44 strikeouts and 17 walks. His changeup had been hit hard, and his sweeper had not offered much cover either.
That split explains why the game drew betting interest rather than just box-score interest. Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Oliver Durbin gave Boston enough names to keep pressure on a shaky arm, but Washington could answer with James Wood, CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz behind the status of García Jr. The one pitcher listed as the biggest reason the game stayed Boston-specific instead of turning into a full-game over play was Ranger Suarez, which made the missing bat in Washington even more important. If García sat, the Nationals were asking the rest of the order to keep up without the player who had been carrying them through Baltimore.
So the question left hanging on Monday was not whether Boston had momentum. It did. The question was whether that momentum mattered once the Red Sox met a Nationals team with enough offense to pressure the total, and whether Washington would have its hottest hitter in the lineup when the first pitch came at Fenway Park.
