Soxumentary Cards 21-40

After how much fun I had creating and receiving my first 20 cards of the Soxumentary set, I went ahead and created cards for games 21-40 of the 2018 Red Sox season. I eventually started to fall a bit behind, which I had a premonition would happen, so I took advantage of staying home sick on Monday to complete the 2nd set.

Unlike the first set, the 2nd Soxumentary set is way more like what their season is going to look like. The first set included 17 wins and just 3 losses. Now, we have 12 wins and 10 losses. They may have gone a bit downhill, but you can't stay 17-3 forever. Plus, the team had some very exciting things happen over these 20 games that I am thrilled to have captured on cardboard.

Let's start with the wins, shall we? Boston pulled off some exciting wins over this 20-game span, the most exciting of which being their 4-3 win over the Rays to avoid the series sweep. It included backup-catcher Sandy Leon hitting a go-ahead RBI in the bottom of the 8th, hence why he's the one on the card. 

The other wins came thanks to the Red Sox power bats, particularly J.D. Martinez and of course, Mookie Betts. Combined, these 2 are hitting.343 with 33 homers and almost 80 RBI. Without them, the Sox wouldn't have half the wins they have today. 

In addition to their hitters, the Sox starting pitching hasn't let them down. At least, Chris Sale hasn't, anyway. Sale has had numerous sensational starts and is closing in on 100 strikeouts as I speak. In fact, he's just 4 K's away from that milestone. Along with him, Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez have also been pitching very well this year.

Of course, there will still losses to make cards of, which wasn't all that fun. In spite of how well they've been playing, the Sox have still suffered some pretty bad losses. Mostly, it's been the games where the starting pitchers have struggles which can't really be undone. Even if the team scores many runs like they did in the game above (the card on the right). The Sox scored 6 runs in that game, but their pitching allowed 12 runs against the Rays.

Finally, throughout games 21-40 of the year, whether they won or lost the game, the Sox had numerous highlights that I was able to put on these cards.

The first of these highlights came at the hands of Chris Sale, who else? Sale pitched 9 innings against the Blue Jays in which he struck out 15 batters which are tied for his career-high. Despite all of this, Sale was still unable to get the win, and the Sox couldn't pull off the win in this game, either as they lost 5-3 on a walk-off in Toronto.

The 2nd highlight was thanks to Craig Kimbrel, meaning there was definitely a save involved, and there was. Kimbrel got his 300th save a couple weeks ago when the Red Sox took on the Rangers in Texas. He became the fastest player to reach this milestone by notching 300 saves in 330 save situations.

Finally, the last of the highlights is not so much a true highlight, but more of a special moment. This card, commemorating the 5-2 win over the Blue Jays, could very well be his final Soxumentary card, coming far earlier than anyone could have expected since he was DFA'd yesterday. I'm still bitter about the whole thing, but in the end, I understand why they did it. With that being said, I may have to create a custom Hanley card or cards on the app, just as a way to commemorate his time with the Red Sox.