Stock Up, Stock Down: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, more

Stock Up: Boston Red Sox

When the Yankees came to Fenway Park for a three-game series last weekend, the Red Sox were buried in last place in the division and 5.5 games back in the AL Wild Card race. What a difference one weekend against their rivals makes, as well as a trip to Minnesota to play the struggling Twins.

In just five days, Boston picked up four games in the Wild Card standings after they swept the Yankees and took the first two games of their four-game set against the Twins. What has been impressive during their run in the last week is that they are getting it done both offensively and defensively, something that wasn’t happening earlier in the season.

Offensively, they put 15 runs on New York in the first game of the series, then rallied to sweep a doubleheader on Sunday, combing for 10 runs in both games. Boston is 5-1 against New York since Nestor Cortes comments two weeks ago. Against Minnesota, Triston Casas had a three-run home run and Alex Verdugo drove in four of the nine runs they put up in the opening game. One night later, Masataka Yoshida launched a 447-foot home run. Christian Arroyo chipped in with a 5-for-5 performance with four RBI.

Boston had their winning streak snapped Wednesday night with a 5-4 loss to the Twins and are two games back in the Wild Card. However, making up 3.5 games in six days is an impressive feat.

The Red Sox are getting this done on the arms of Kutter Crawford, James Paxton, Brayan Bello, and some spot starters after Tanner Houck was hit in the face by a line drive against the Yankees Friday night and will require surgery. With Corey Kluber’s struggles and Chris Sale out injured, nobody saw this streak coming from Boston on the mound, never mind at the plate.

Stock Down: Pittsburgh Pirates

Through the first couple of months of the season, the Pittsburgh Pirates were one of the good stories of the season. They were sitting on top of the National League Central Division standings, getting good pitching, timely hitting and even locked up star outfielder Bryan Reynolds. Things haven’t gone as smoothly in June, mainly the last seven days.

Pittsburgh showed up at American Family Field for a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers and got swept, dropping into second place in the division. Looking to turn things around at home, the Chicago Cubs were not having it and they promptly swept the Pirates and all of a sudden, after finding themselves in first place a week ago, they slid down to fourth place thanks to an 11-game Cincinnati Reds winning streak that has them in first place and the Cubs playing better.

During their losing streak, the Pirates have been shut out three times, including twice on back-to-back days by the Cubs at home. They scored one run in the series final on Wednesday and have scored just seven runs in the last week. Everything that was going right for them early in the season seems to be going wrong for them now.

Teams learn about themselves during stretches like this in a 162-game season. For Pittsburgh, their makeup will be tested with their next two series, four against the Miami Marlins and three against the San Diego Padres. This is not a make-or-break week for the Pirates, but a big week in terms of how they respond to adversity.

Stock Up: Chicago Cubs

Yes, the Reds and San Francisco Giants have been good recently, as have the Philadelphia Phillies and Red Sox. One team quietly playing well has been the Cubs.

They have won eight of their last 10, Marcus Stroman has turned into an ace and, in his latest outing, he went seven innings, scattered five hits, walked one, and struck out five in a 4-0 shutout of the Pirates. That followed up Drew Smyly’s five-inning scoreless outing the night before in an 8-0 Chicago win.

Offensively, the Cubs are coming up with big hits at big moments. For instance, in their win Monday night, five of the eight runs were driven in with two outs in an inning then, one night later, Mike Tauchman and Tucker Barnhart each had home runs. Their 10-game run has come at the hands of the Pirates and Baltimore Orioles (who they won two out of three from last weekend). They now head to London Stadium for two games against the St. Louis Cardinals.

There have been plenty of surprises in June and recently, the Red Sox and Cubs are making noise. Chicago is in a better position to make bigger news in a wide-open NL Central, but Boston is going to make things interesting in the AL East. Pittsburgh and Stanton need to figure things out before things can spiral even more out of control than they currently have.