By Patrick Whalen

In a potential ALCS preview, the Red Sox gave some key players an off day after celebrating their A.L. clinching win in New York. Chris Sale got the start tonight but was on a 75 pitch count. Sale went 3.1 innings with 7 K’s giving up 2 runs on a Josh Donaldson home run in the fourth making it 2-1. Sam Travis opened the Sox scoring but hitting his first major league ding dong on a bomb to right field.

Heath Hembree and Bobby Poyner would each give up 1 run out of the pen making it 4-1. Rafael Devers then hit a solo bomb in the sixth inning for his 18th of the year to make it 4-2. In the seventh inning, Sam Travis would drive in another 2 runs to tie the game up at 4 a piece and Tzu-Wei Lin would drive in the go-ahead run later that inning and Devers would drive in one more to make it 6-4. Drew Pomeranz then gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh to make to make it 6-5. The Indians had a threat to score in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded and 1 out and Robby Scott was able to get out of Hector Velazquez mess. Of course in the top of the ninth just to give the Sox a cushion Tzu-Wei Lin hit his first major league bomb out to right center to make it 7-5.

Kimbrel then came in and shut the door in the ninth to get win number 105 and tie the 1912 Red Sox for the franchise win record. This game honestly should have been a loss on paper, so to come out with a win against a potential ALCS opponent is a great confidence boost for the Sox especially with Mookie, Benny, JBJ, Mitch and Kinsler all getting an off day and Sale only going 3.1 innings. Also with this win, the Red Sox can now clinch home field in the playoffs and set the franchise record for wins with a win tomorrow against Cleveland. The Sox magic number to clinch home field is now down to 1 over the Houston Astros. All pretty impressive for this team to be doing this under first-year manager Alex Cora. For tomorrow nights matchup we will be seeing Rick Porcello who is 17-7 with a 4.30 ERA go up against Mike Clevinger who is 12-8 with a 3.08 ERA.