Boston Broke the Night Twice

The Red Sox did not build a lead and then coast. They built a lead, let the game breathe just enough to be annoying, and then broke it open again.

Boston beat Chicago 14-2 after scoring six runs in the first inning and six more in the sixth. Those innings were not duplicates. They were bookends: the first removed suspense, and the second removed the idea that the White Sox might find it again.

The First Inning Took the Oxygen

Six runs before the game had settled into its shape is not a cushion. It is a hostile takeover of the evening.

The White Sox spent the rest of the game trying to convert a blowout into a contest. Boston kept answering that request with more baserunners. The Red Sox finished with 15 hits and four home runs, so the damage was not dependent on one lucky inning or one ball that barely cleared the wall.

The Sixth Inning Repeated the Message

Chicago scored once in the fifth and once in the sixth, but the sixth still belonged to Boston. The Red Sox answered with six runs of their own, turning a 7-1 game into a 13-2 game and putting the final decision somewhere beyond debate.

Caleb Durbin drove in four runs. Wilyer Abreu hit two home runs, and Jarren Duran and Andruw Monasterio also helped keep the lineup moving. The offense did not ask one player to carry the entire evening. It kept finding a different way to extend it.

Sandoval Made It Usable

Patrick Sandoval allowed two runs over five innings and struck out five. That is enough when the lineup has already created a six-run runway and then constructs another one later.

The useful part of the start was not perfection. It was the absence of a comeback inning. Chicago got two runs, but Boston never let those runs become a new story.

The Desk Has Ruled

The Desk’s Lead Protection Grade was B (92), calculated from Boston’s 14-run largest lead, 12-run final margin, and a one-run closing-period edge. A B here is not a warning label; it is the metric noticing that Boston gave back a little after taking everything.

The Red Sox won the game in the first inning. They made sure of it again in the sixth. Chicago was asked to survive two separate verdicts and did not get a third act.