Game 36: Red Sox at Phillies

The Red Sox are on the verge of a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies to set their winning streak at nine games. They enter the day just two games back of the Baltimore Orioles and 6.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Things are definitely looking up.

How many times in a row will they have won?

Tanner Houck won’t be at 31 Flavors tonight (though maybe?) but he’s taking a disappointing start into this afternoon’s matchup. Six runs allowed to the Blue Jays doubled his season high, but he’s not far removed from the 7 inning, 3 run performance agains the Minnesota Twins. With James Paxton possibly nearing activation it’s now or never to turn in a resume-building start to stick in the rotation.

Luckily, Taijuan Walker is off to an even worse start than Houck. In six starts he’s failed to get out of the fourth inning four times. He gave up eight runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers last time out and five to the Seattle Mariners the time before that.

Masataka Yoshida is back in the lineup.

Connor Wong is back behind the plate.

Let’s go for the sweep!

First pitch is at 1:35 PM ET on WEEI and NESN.