The Boston Red Sox completed their first regular-season sweep of the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night, but there is much more to the history between the two teams. Entering Wednesday’s game, the two clubs had a 5-5-2 series record, but Boston’s sweep of Colorado in the 2007 World Series remains the most significant chapter in their shared past.

Two of the three games in this series at Fenway Park ended with identical 10-2 victories for the Red Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday, following a 9-3 win on Monday. For Denver, it marked their 11th sweep of the season—setting a Major League Baseball record for the most sweeps endured through the first 21 series of a season.

The Rockies’ 21-72 record also ensures they will enter the All-Star break with the worst record in MLB history at that point in the season.

Traveling to Boston offered the Rockies a glimpse of what baseball feels like in a full stadium once again. A crowd of 31,698 packed Fenway Park on a Wednesday night to watch their AL East fourth-place Red Sox blow out the NL West’s fifth-place Rockies. Interestingly, the two cities have similar populations; Denver ranks 18th with 715,522 residents, and Boston ranks 20th with 675,647.

Back in Denver, the Fourth of July holiday and fireworks helped draw near-sellout crowds as the Rockies hosted the Chicago White Sox in a battle of baseball’s two worst teams.

Although the Red Sox sit in fourth place, they have a winning record of 49-45 and have now won eight of their last nine games, including six consecutive victories. All-time, Boston is 18-14 against Colorado and 12-7 at Fenway Park.

For the Rockies, the downward spiral deepened. Trailing 5-2 in the eighth inning on Wednesday, the rain began to fall—and the Red Sox poured it on even more, scoring five additional runs to put the game completely out of reach. Colorado had no answers in the final two innings. Before the sweep, the Rockies’ last four wins each came in the final game of a series to avoid being swept. This time, it wasn’t meant to be.

Interim manager Warren Schaeffer reflected on his team after the game:

“When you’re a group of guys around each other all the time, playing in the biggest stadiums in the world on a nightly basis, if you can’t keep yourself motivated to try to win a ballgame together—with guys that you love and that you’re with every single day of the year, every waking hour—then shame on you. Everybody in there loves each other and is pulling for each other. They’re just trying to go out there, get better every day, and win ballgames.”

One bright spot for the Rockies has been designated hitter Tyler Freeman, who extended his on-base streak against the Red Sox. He has now reached base in a career-best 23 straight games—the longest active streak in the majors. Since May 30, Freeman has reached base in 32 of 33 games.

“Free’s just settling into who he is,” Schaeffer said. “A lot of good, hard contact. A lot of long at-bats. Just a good, prototypical leadoff hitter… doing everything you want a guy like that to do. His on-base percentage keeps climbing. He’s a big part of what we do.”

The Rockies have one last road series, against the Cincinnati Reds, before the All-Star break begins on Monday.

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