By Patrick Whalen

The 2018 Boston Red Sox just set the franchise record with 106 wins and how appropriate to do it in Fenway Park. This team is truly incredible. The Sox were finally able to clinch that honors against the Baltimore Orioles, some would argue the Norfolk Tides plus Adam Jones, by winning 6-2.

Nathan Eovaldi continued his campaign to make the postseason rotation with a dominant start going 5 innings 4 hits 1 run and a career-high 10 strikeouts. Plus the one run scored against Nate was on a wild pitch in the 5th. Eovaldi was bringing it all night touching 99-100 mph numerous times and just making the Orioles look like the triple a team they really are.

His teammates did not wait long to give Nate some run support in the 2nd. Brock Holt ], whose bat should literally be on fire at this point, doubled home Steve Pearce to open the scoring Vazquez proceded to drive in Holt with a single. To cap off the four-run 2nd inning, Mookie Betts might have just sealed up his MVP with home run number 32, launching it into the stratosphere onto the Green Monster. Mookie also stole his 29th base tonight leaving him one shy of a 30-30 season.

The Red Sox would tack on two more in the 4th inning. Benintendi hit a screaming line drive at the Orioles second basemen, Steve Wilkerson, that deflected off him which allowed Jackie Bradley Jr to score. Xander Bogaerts came up later that inning and drove in Mookie Betts for his 96th RBI.

Once Eovaldi left the Eduardo Rodriguez would pitch 2 innings of 1 hit ball out of the bullpen as Alex Cora is preparing E Rod for a potential postseason bullpen role. Joe Kelly struggled in his outing tonight and was charged with the only run given up by the bullpen tonight. Ryan Braiser would come in for the rest of the 8th and get out of Kelly’s jam, ending the inning by picking off Jonathan Villar at first base. Matt Barnes would then come in and close it out in the 9th to clinch the Red Sox franchise record 106th win and clinched the best record in baseball, giving the Red Sox home field advantage throughout the postseason.

It’s truly incredible to see that this young Red Sox team can set the franchise record for wins with all the injuries to key guys like Sale, Devers, Vazquez, Pedroia, and a shaky bullpen at times and dealing with all of it, a rookie manager in Alex Cora. People knew the Sox would be good. That they would be in a fight with the Yankees for the division and the loser would probably be the first wild card. That all happened, but no one saw the Sox beating the Yankees out by 9.5 games for the division and being the best team in baseball by 6.5 games over the reigning world series champion Houston Astros. It has been an incredible season so far for this team, but the work is not done yet for these guys as Cora has preached “we’ve got 11 games to win in October.”