Make them pay

Giants 9, Red Sox 5

If you feel like the more talented team lost two out of three games, I wouldn't blame you.

The Red Sox outhit the Giants in each game. They're bursting with young, aggressive hitters. And their pitchers stack up similarly to the Giants'.

So how do you figure the Giants are 10 games over .500 and the Red Sox just one?

If the answer could be distilled into one moment, it happened in the seventh inning.

With the go-ahead run on third and two outs, Mike Yastrzemski lined a ball right at the second baseman. It rocketed into his glove at nearly 99 mph before squirting out and trickling into right field.

The Giants took the lead on the error—then they twisted the knife. Rafael Devers followed with a single and Heliot Ramos knocked a double to score two more. They scored five unearned runs on Sunday.

Good teams make their opponents pay for their mistakes. The Giants not only did that, they won the series because of it.

Up next: Good teams also put bad teams in their place. The Giants will see a couple in this coming week as the Marlins and White Sox come to town. It’ll be Cal Quantrill (3-7, 5.68 ERA) against Justin Verlander (0-4, 4.45 ERA) on Tuesday night at 6:45 pm.