{"id":2507636,"date":"2026-07-18T20:54:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2507636"},"modified":"2026-07-18T20:54:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:54:40","slug":"the-opener-red-sox-blowouts-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-opener-red-sox-blowouts-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opener: Red Sox, Blowouts, Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Poor air quality in Cleveland yesterday resulted in the postponement of the Pirates\/Guardians game, and the two sides will make it up with a split doubleheader today (start times of 12:10pm CT and 6:10pm CT).\u00a0 <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=jonesja09,jones-013jar&amp;search=Jared+Jones&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jared Jones<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=williga01,willia003gav&amp;search=Gavin+Williams&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gavin Williams<\/a><\/strong> will be the opposing starters in Game 1, while <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=allenlo02,allenlo01&amp;search=Logan+Allen&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Logan Allen<\/a><\/strong> is expected to be called up to start the nightcap for the Guards and <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/ashcrbr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Braxton Ashcraft<\/a><\/strong> will start for the Bucs.\u00a0 This is the second straight Saturday with a doubleheader for the Pirates, who swept their twin bill with the Brewers on July 11.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Red Sox turn it up to 11<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of doubleheaders, the Red Sox defeated the Rays by 10-0 and 5-3 scores on Friday, as Boston extended its win streak to 11 games.\u00a0 The 48-48 Sox are back at the .500 mark for the first time since Opening Day, as the team\u2019s remarkable 16-2 record in their last 18 games has resurrected what seemed like a lost season.\u00a0 Boston is now just percentage points behind the Twins for the final AL wild card slot, and eight games behind the Rays for first place in the AL East.\u00a0 <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sandopa02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patrick Sandoval<\/a><\/strong> looks to take the Red Sox a step closer as today\u2019s starting pitcher, while the Rays send <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/seymoia01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ian Seymour<\/a><\/strong> to the mound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Lopsided scores around the game<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The second half began with a bang (or a thud) for multiple teams on Friday, as Boston\u2019s 10-0 win over Tampa was one of five games decided by at least seven runs.\u00a0 The Nationals\u2019 23-4 thrashing of the Athletics was the biggest rout of the bunch, as the 23 runs tied the second-highest single-game run total in the history of the Nationals\/Expos franchise.\u00a0 <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chapaan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Andres Chaparro<\/a><\/strong> went 4-for-5 with eight RBI to lead Washington to victory, and the A\u2019s lost their tenth straight game.\u00a0 The Braves also enjoyed a 15-1 cakewalk over the Rangers, in a game that got so weird that pitcher <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/medervi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Victor Mederos<\/a><\/strong> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/victor-mederos-gets-hit-off-kyle-higashioka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">got a two-run single<\/a> off catcher <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/higasky01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kyle Higashioka<\/a><\/strong> (in for mop-up duty) in the bottom of the eighth.\u00a0 Mederos is now 1-for-1 at the plate in his MLB career, and his single marked the first hit from a full-time pitcher since the universal DH was implemented before the 2022 season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Royals score wild walkoff in extras<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Padres scored in the top of the ninth to force extra innings in Kansas City last night, then scored three more runs in the top of the 10th to make it a 6-3 game.\u00a0 Since superstar closer <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=millema03,miller005mas&amp;search=Mason+Miller&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mason Miller<\/a><\/strong> was already used in the bottom of the ninth, however, San Diego turned to <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=hartky01,hart--004kyl&amp;search=Kyle+Hart&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kyle Hart<\/a><\/strong> to try and close things out Friday, with disastrous results.\u00a0 The Royals delivered four singles in five at-bats against Hart, with <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jenseca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-18_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carter Jensen<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s two-run single acting as the walkoff in a 7-6 victory.\u00a0 The loss drops the Padres back under the .500 mark to 48-49, in a blow to the team\u2019s attempts to stay in contention and avoid having to sell at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mlbtraderumors.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poor air quality in Cleveland yesterday resulted in the postponement of the Pirates\/Guardians game, and the two sides will make it up with a split doubleheader today (start times of 12:10pm CT and 6:10pm CT).\u00a0 Jared Jones and Gavin Williams will be the opposing starters in Game 1, while Logan Allen is expected to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2507637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2507636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/The-Opener-Red-Sox-Blowouts-Royals.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2507636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2507638,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2507636\/revisions\/2507638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2507637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2507636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2507636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2507636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}