The Red Sox bats showed life tonight in an 8-3 win over the Oakland A’s, exploding for 14 hits.  Although it was against the A’s, any offensive explosion is a welcome sight for a team that since the All-Star break was in one of those slumps where just nothing is going right.  At least now, they might be regrouped with both hitting and pitching coming together.  It is often said that when a team’s players are slumping together, “someone is gonna pay.”  Let’s just hope the charges continue through the upcoming series with the Orioles, Rays and Yankees.

As important as the hitting and Josh Beckett’s pitching (7 IP, 3 ER, 10 K, 1 BB, 8 H), the bullpen continued its stellar performance by continuing its scoreless streak–now at 24 innings–since the All-Star break.  Central to the bullpen is rookie reliever Daniel Bard.

In 27.2 innings, Bard is rocking a 1.01 WHIP, 2.28 ERA and .184 batting average against on top of 34 strikeouts.  Most impressive is the distribution of Bard’s runs: in his 23 relief appearances since arriving at the big club from Pawtucket, Bard has only allowed earned runs in three of them.  The last time one of Bard’s runners scored was on June 25–eight appearances ago.