Red Sox vs. Phillies lineups: Six-shooting

The Red Sox (67-59) — or, rather, Rafael Devers and the Red Sox*, the name by which the team will hereafter be known — can keep proving big naysaying idiots like me (who basically have declared the season over), well, dead wrong by sweeping away the similarly surging Phillies (64-60) starting with tonight’s game against Aaron Nola at 7:10 p.m. at Fenway Park.

By now you’ve seen Bryce Harper’s mammoth walk-off winner against the Cubs from a few days ago, and despite all that good cheer and handsomeness the Phillies have lost two in a row and have their best pitcher on the mound and need this game every bit as much as the Sox. Maybe more so, because they’re not defending champs and are just trying to prove they belong in the top tier of teams, which the Red Sox are even if they’re not, if that makes any sense. If not, the hell with it!

The Sox start Brian Johnson, which is never a good thing going in even if it can be an okay thing coming out. He’s capable of pitching well, at least. The important part is that Rafael Devers is still alive and doing Mike Trout things, which apparently one player on the Sox is allowed/required to do at any time, and no more than that. For Mookie, it was all of last year, and Xander Bogaerts and Devers have shared the honor this year, and I don’t care who does it tonight so long as someone does.

Nola is very good, and that could pose a problem for a team trying to win a baseball game against him. He had a couple rough-ish starts in July but has been, at worst, workmanlike and at best magical. If the Sox — sorry, Rafael Devers and the Red Sox — can cut through him, well, maybe the playoff run isn’t an illusion after all.