The Sox lead the American League Central by 1½ games over the Cleveland Indians, who had a late game Thursday at Seattle. The Twins also were expected to be contenders for the division title, but they are 10 games back.
“It’s where we wanted to be coming through spring training,” Sox closer Liam Hendriks said Thursday after collecting his seventh save. “And the first couple weeks, we didn’t show who we were. Once we relaxed a little bit and started getting everyone in the clubhouse involved and not trying to do too much, we kind of ran with it a little bit, which is nice.