{"id":7000,"date":"2025-07-19T02:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7000\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T02:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T02:35:07","slug":"red-sox-roll-into-second-half-al-east-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7000\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox roll into second half, AL East standings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Aaron Judge on being the MLB All-Star Game leading vote getter<\/p>\n

New York Yankees captain and seven-time all-star Aaron Judge discusses being the top vote getter for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

Sportrs Pulse<\/p>\n

The team that made one of the strangest early-season moves in recent baseball history is roaring into the second half hotter than anybody.<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox<\/a>, who traded $313 million slugger Rafael Devers<\/a> in mid-June, will take a 10-game winning streak into the second half, climbing within a game of the New York Yankees and lurking within striking distance of the first-place Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> in a once-again rugged American League East.<\/p>\n

And they’ve zoomed up six more spots to 10th in USA TODAY Sports’ power rankings.<\/p>\n

Boston is coming off a four-game sweep of Tampa Bay and opens the second half with a showdown at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. A pitching staff once strafed by injury and poor performance now has two right-handers, Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello, performing like reliable near-aces. Its lineup, bereft of Devers, has benefited from the quiet and focused rise of super rookie Roman Anthony<\/a>, the recent activation of All-Star Alex Bregman and the star turn of center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela.<\/p>\n

Over his last 21 games, Rafaela has batted .347 with a 1.152 OPS, 10 doubles and eight home runs. Little wonder Boston has won 11 of 12 in July – and is continuing to rise as the trade deadline comes into sight.<\/p>\n

A look at our updated rankings:<\/p>\n

1. Detroit Tigers (-)From a roar to a whimper as they’re swept to end the first half.They take a series at Yankee Stadium to barely keep control of NL Central.Shohei Ohtani is up to three innings a start, and looking better every time out.From red-hot<\/a> to dropping five of six.An ascendant farm system adds perhaps the best prep shortstop in JoJo Parker.Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga will make this an entirely different team.9. New York Yankees (-)Aaron Judge seemed strangely invisible at the All-Star Game.In addition to his offensive exploits, rookie Carlos Narvaez leads the majors with 20 runners caught stealing.A 10-game road trip to tip off the second half may yet determine their fate.With Matt Chapman back, Willy Adames and Rafael Devers should thrive in second half.14. Tampa Bay Rays (-4)Have they played their way into a neutral actor at the trade deadline?15. St. Louis Cardinals (-3)In a packed NL Central race, they’re the “why not us?” entry.16. Cincinnati Reds (-1)17. Texas Rangers (-)Nearly reaching .500 by the All-Star break is a significant feat.18. Arizona Diamondbacks (-)19. Los Angeles Angels (-)Shocked the world by drafting Tyler Bremner second overall.20. Minnesota Twins (-)Rob Manfred insists they’ll be sold soon.21. Kansas City Royals (+1)Seth Lugo would be significantly attractive on the trade market.22. Cleveland Guardians (+1)Paul Sewald hits IL again with sore shoulder.What a week for Kyle Stowers: Three-homer game vs. his old team, and a swing-off bomb.Had a chance to make sure Bryan Baker deal wasn’t beginning of end. Then get swept by Miami.A nice pop for Brian Snitker during All-Star Game introductions.Paul Skenes impresses Clayton Kershaw with workout routine.27. Athletics (+1)All Brent Rooker does is hit bombs in All-Star Games. They should try to bring one to Yolo County.28. Washington Nationals (-1)29. Chicago White Sox (-)Yep, even Shane Smith got into the All-Star Game – for 10 pitches.30. Colorado Rockies (-)Ethan Holliday is a nice bit of hope to sell, at least for a while.<\/p>\n

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news \u2014 fast.\u00a0Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge on being the MLB All-Star Game leading vote getter New York Yankees captain and seven-time all-star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[7656,7661,7679,3044,7676,505,3960,5462,3966,3307,5597,3333,3959,492,7662,7671,49,48,7664,6681,508,1501,7651,6828,511,7667,7668,7660,1443,1506,7674,7657,463,3043,487,7659,7678,7654,513,1517,7663,7680,1502,6390,3981,7670,493,462,47,2349,5268,475,44,6905,7669,1333,1345,7673,4623,504,1518,481,1498,7672,4847,509,1334,7650,1493,1439,7666,477,512,7658,7653,7677,7675,470,7652,482,7649,7665,82,865,3302,507,7655,3976,5841],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-adames","tag-alex","tag-alex-bregman","tag-angeles","tag-astros","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baseball","tag-blue","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-braves","tag-bregman","tag-brewers","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chapman","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cubs","tag-devers","tag-diego","tag-dodgers","tag-francisco","tag-giants","tag-giolito","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-jays","tag-kyle","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-lucas","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-manaea","tag-mariners","tag-marlins","tag-matt","tag-matt-chapman","tag-mets","tag-miami","tag-miami-marlins","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-new","tag-new-york-mets","tag-news","tag-ohtani","tag-orioles","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-padres","tag-paul","tag-paul-skenes","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-phillies","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-positive","tag-rafael","tag-rafael-devers","tag-red","tag-san","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-schwarber","tag-sean","tag-sean-manaea","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-shohei","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-skenes","tag-sox","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-willy","tag-willy-adames","tag-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}