Red Sox 6, White Sox 1: This is perhaps their most important game

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It's silly to end up in a game or win during a baseball season.

Thursday night, the Red Sox missed their match against the White Sox on a walk-in circuit. Friday night, they bounced back with a 6-1 win in Chicago. They could now win 10 in a row, or maybe a series of defeats starts on Saturday. This is the danger of trying to analyze each of these 162 games. (For a full summary of the Red Sox win, click here.)

But all that being said, it's fair to watch the Sox's last win and separate it at least a little bit.

When Chris Sale does what he did, and the image of Michael Chavis and Rafael Devers striking home deserves that we look at it more closely.

Start with Sale.

Alex Cora suggested that it was the time of year when we were starting to see a slight rise in his ace and he was right. Dirty has perhaps been his best outing of the season, not allowing a run of more than six innings while allowing only three hits. And after his 10 strikeouts, the southpaw has now made 28 retreats in his last three outings.

Sale's fastball was on average about the same as what she had done in her seventh start a year ago (93.1 mph). From that moment – up to the injury to the shoulder – he would not sit below 95 km / h before the rest of his debut in 2018. But the most notable is can -being the way he used the radiator.

After throwing his slider much more than the fastball in each of his previous three starts, Sale came back and used each pitch equally (throwing 38 sliders and 37 fastballs). In addition, Sale begins to make many more swings and misses the heater barely during his first four outings.

They knew that they needed this sale, not only against the White Sox, but against everyone else.

"As I said, I struggled," he told reporters. "I know it was not so good, but it's sport, it's baseball, sometimes we find that and we ride this wave and sometimes we're in the middle of the sea trying to to find, then not only myself, but a lot of people here have helped me to reach this point and I am obviously pleased with the way we have done it tonight, and hopefully I can continue to navigate this wave and find that groove and continue to base on it and maintain it. "

It was the latest in a good turnaround for a starting rotation that was driving the Red Sox throughout the first few weeks of the new season. Since April 24, however, Sox starters have posted the third lowest total of gains (2.79) and the fourth lowest batting against the majors (.201). They also gave only four circuits to the house.

The perceived strength of this team becomes the strength of this team.

Then there is the promise of what the two young soldiers offered.

After his gigantic home run, Chavis now hits .310 with a 1,061 OPS and four homers. In games, he started the Sox are now 7-5. It's starting to become a chance for beginners.

And as encouraging as Chavis played for the Red Sox, seeing Devers go deep had to be even more rewarding. While the defense of the third base player has sparked discussions about his viability as a starter to his current position, the bat has helped temper the conversation. There was only one thing left: a home run. This story was finally moved Friday night.

"I'm not trying to hit home runs," Devers told the press after scoring 0.78. "I am looking to have good AB, to stay disciplined in the zone and to make a hard contact even if, occasionally, I still fight hard, I am just trying to make contact and if it is a home run, it is Is a home run. "

It was the tenth time that the Red Sox left with two or more circuits (with an astonishing record at 5-5 in such scenarios). But this time, it was the one who hit them that should have raised a few eyebrows.

The Sox are still sitting three games under .500 (15-18) and six and a half games out of first place, but this apparently innocuous victory on a cold night in Chicago could mean something more than the mostly.

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