Red Sox and Indians Split Four Game Series in Matchup of Division Leaders

The Cleveland Indians played a four game series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park August 20-23rd in what could be a possible post season matchup. Barring a big collapse in September, the Indians figure to win the A.L Central while the Red Sox should win the A.L. East.

For those trying to read the tea leaves and gain insight from this series for a possible October showdown, the results are mixed and inconclusive. Cleveland did take the first two games but the Red Sox came back to win the last two, resulting in a four game split. The Indians came in a hot streak, winning 12 of 15, while the entire Red Sox season has been a hot streak. Still, there should be a little bit of a concern for the Red Sox that the Indians took two straight at Fenway. There have been lots of examples of clubs running up impressive regular season records, only to falter in the playoffs. One only has to look back at the 2017 Indians to see this in action. Cleveland was 102-60 in the regular season, which included a 22 game winning streak that ran from mid August to mid September. But the Indians lost their American League Division Series to the New York Yankees, once again proving that anything can happen in the postseason.

With their two victories, the Red Sox became the first team to win 90 games, at 90-39, 9 1/2 games ahead of second place New York. Cleveland was at 73-54 on the season, 12 games ahead of Minnesota. Red Sox starter David Price picked up his 14th win of the season in that 90th Boston win, striking out seven in eight innings of work: