Let me take you back to July 12.

The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox were clobbered 9-3 by Harwich, suffering their first losing streak of the summer. After the game, assistant coach Craig Gianinno didn't mince words.

"It ain't about hits, and sometimes we try to only get hits," Gianinno said July 12. "There's other ways to score runs besides getting hits."

He couldn't have been more right.

Since that loss, Y-D has won four of its last five games, including Monday night's 4-0 victory over Cotuit. The Red Sox scored four runs without recording a single RBI.

"This, tonight, this was baseball, man," Gianinno said. "It's taking advantage of what the other team gives us, and they were all over the place on the mound. Baseball is a weird game, and that's why we love it so much."

Y-D took advantage of six walks, three hit batters, and four wild pitches while collecting just four hits.

A scoreless game broke open in the fifth inning when the Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs on three consecutive walks. Lucas Franco (TCU) grounded into a double play to score the game's first run, then Brock Ketelsen (Stanford) came home on a wild pitch two pitches later for a 2-0 lead.

Gianinno boasted a smirk on his face near the dugout after the two-run fifth frame. His grin only got wider, because the sixth looked awfully familiar.

After two walks and a hit-by-pitch to Tommy Goodin (Vanderbilt), the Red Sox loaded the bases again. Mateo Serna (Alabama) grounded into another run-scoring double play before a first-pitch wild pitch to Reid Howard (Virginia) allowed Kevin Takeuchi to score from third and make it 4-0. With the way Y-D's pitching staff was dealing, the game felt over.

Dimitri Angelakos (Georgia Tech) started for Y-D and tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings before giving way to Noah Franco (TCU). Angelakos allowed three hits, walked two and struck out four, though both he and pitching coach Eric Beattie felt there was another level to reach.

"Dimitri is a strike-thrower. He had a little trouble putting guys away today with two strikes, but he still threw a bunch of pitches for strikes and induced a lot of weak contact," Beattie said. "So, I'll take the worst-case scenario that he's still in the zone with all of his pitches."

Angelakos agreed and said he's continuing to develop a swing-and-miss pitch, including adding a curveball to his arsenal.

"With two strikes, trying not to do too much and still trying to be myself will work," Angelakos said. "Continue to work off the field to develop a pitch that is a swing-and-miss strikeout pitch. But for right now, just continuing to progress, grow, take it slowly, and hopefully it comes sooner than later."

Noah Franco followed with the best outing of his Y-D summer, striking out six over three scoreless innings. Rhett Vaughn came in after and retired the final five hitters to finish the shutout, lowering his ERA to 1.26 over 14 1/3 innings this summer.

The shutout was Y-D's second straight, and the Red Sox haven't allowed a run since July 16 against Orleans.

"First off, we just have good pitchers that have really bought into changing speeds and shapes over the plate. When you figure out your stuff and can change speeds and shapes, you're going to be successful," Beattie said. "Our defense has also played outstanding. They've turned some big double plays for us. At the end of the day, our guys have just gotten outs when they've needed to."

If Y-D goes 6-5 over its final 11 regular-season games, it will finish with the highest single-season winning percentage in franchise history dating back to at least 1966. The Red Sox will try to keep rolling Tuesday when they travel to second-place Brewster for a 4:30 p.m. first pitch.