NEW YORK — The Red Sox beat Mets 4-0 on Saturday, and for once it didn’t take a late scramble or a rescued flight to get there. Andruw Monasterio and Masataka Yoshida hit two-run homers, five Boston pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout, and the Red Sox made it eight wins in a row without much drama at all.
That’s notable, because drama has basically been the theme of this stretch. Boston has now won 13 of its last 15 games, and its longest winning streak since it reeled off 10 straight last July. Saturday, for a change, the Red Sox just played a clean baseball game and let it be enough.
Monasterio Breaks It Open in the Fourth
The scoring started simply. Caleb Durbin drew a leadoff walk in the top of the fourth, and one out later Monasterio jumped on a fastball from Freddy Peralta (5-8) that caught too much of the plate. He pulled it an estimated 378 feet into the left-field seats — his fifth homer of the season — and the Red Sox had a 2-0 lead they never gave back.
Peralta didn’t fall apart after that, exactly. He worked into the fifth, striking out six, but he also walked five, and Boston made him work for every out he got.
How the Red Sox Beat Mets 4-0 to Extend the Streak
By the eighth inning, insurance felt unnecessary — but Yoshida provided it anyway. Durbin singled off reliever Tobias Myers to start the frame, and Yoshida turned around a 1-0 cutter and lifted it an estimated 360 feet, just inside the right-field foul pole, for his third homer of the year. 4-0, and that was that.
The real story of the night, though, might have been on the mound. Eduardo Rivera, up from Triple-A Worcester and making just his second big-league appearance, opened with 3⅔ hitless innings before Jorge Polanco broke it up with a single on his final pitch. Rivera walked two and struck out three in a start most rookies would take in a heartbeat. Jovani Moran (2-2) picked up the win with 1⅔ scoreless innings, and Boston’s bullpen never let New York find a rhythm.
The Mets Couldn’t Buy a Big Hit
New York’s night is a big reason the Red Sox beat Mets 4-0 as comfortably as they did. The Mets had chances. They just couldn’t do anything with them. New York went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position for the second straight day and stranded nine runners on the afternoon. Their two best looks both died the same way — traffic on the bases, nothing to show for it.
In the seventh, Eric Wagaman and Bo Bichette both walked around a Francisco Alvarez single to load the bases with two outs, and Boston’s bullpen escaped. In the eighth, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor opened with walks, Carson Benge’s fly ball pushed Soto to third, and Polanco grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end it. Two rallies, zero runs, and a Mets team that fell to 40-56 walked away blanked for the ninth time this season.
A Streak Built on More Than Just Talent
It’s worth remembering how this series started. The Red Sox landed in New York late Friday after flight trouble stranded them in Chicago for nearly 24 hours — the kind of travel nightmare that tends to show up in a lineup’s body language the next day. Boston poked fun at it anyway, wearing white T-shirts that read “Show and Go Airlines, See You at 4:15.” Then they went out and beat the Mets 6-2 on no sleep. Saturday, with a full night of normal rest for once, they made it look even easier.
That’s eight in a row now, and it’s not just a hot week riding a couple of big innings. It’s a pitching staff — from Sonny Gray at the top of the rotation down to a September call-up making his second career start — that hasn’t given opposing lineups much to work with, paired with a lineup that’s found timely power just often enough to make it count.
What Comes Next
Left-hander Payton Tolle (5-6, 3.14 ERA) starts Sunday for Boston, looking to complete a series sweep. New York will likely lean on an opener in front of rookie right-hander Zach Thornton (0-1, 4.35), a sign of just how thin things have gotten for a Mets team that’s now lost the plot in back-to-back games.
The final tally — Red Sox beat Mets 4-0 — barely hints at how one-sided the pitching matchup felt. For a Boston team that was four games under .500 barely two weeks ago, eight straight is starting to look like something more than a streak.
