Boston Red Sox
A go-ahead two-run home run by Jarren Duran in the seventh inning preceded a seven-run eighth for Boston.
The Red Sox scored double-digit runs for the first time since Sept. 5, plating 11 of them against the Tampa Bay Rays Friday night.
Boston’s 11-7 win seems fine on paper. The club exploded offensively after going 2-5 since Sept. 10, got a quality start out of their ace in Garrett Crochet, and even eliminated the Rays from playoff contention. However, its pitching was shaky in a back-and-forth contest.
The Red Sox and Tampa Bay found themselves in a battle at the plate in the first half. The Rays quickly got on the board to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but Boston responded in the top of the second with a RBI hit of its own to tie.
In the second frame, Rays shortstop Carson Williams put Tampa Bay back on top with a solo home run off Crochet in the home-half of the second inning. Their lead didn’t last long, though. Alex Bregman hit his first pull home run in what feels like ages in the top of the third to knot the game again at two runs apiece.
Yandy Diaz, a stud slugger for the Rays, followed up with a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the third to give Tampa Bay its third separate lead of the contest.
Crochet eventually settled down and ultimately tossed six innings of work. He finished the night allowing four hits, three runs and walks each, and struck out nine batters on 98 pitches. It’s a fine stat line for most MLB pitchers, but Friday’s start wasn’t up to the standard Crochet has set for himself in his first season with the Red Sox.
However, after the game, manager Alex Cora praised Crochet for receiving his 17th win of the season.
“He’s the ace, right? There’s a reason we [traded] for him … and there’s a reason we gave him all that money,” Cora told reporters. “The guy — he works hard, he cares. He wanted to keep going and I was like, ‘Nah, this is good.’ He wants to win and I think it was the perfect guy to be on the mound tonight.”
Crochet, who’s allowed 14 home runs in his last 10 starts, offered a brief explanation for the hard hits he gave up.
“The four-seam sucked,” he said. Crochet threw his cutter 33 percent of the time as a result.
When Crochet exited the game after the top of the sixth inning, Boston still trailed 3-2. Tampa Bay’s lead didn’t last long, though.
Jarren Duran hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh to give the Red Sox their first lead of the night, 4-3. The 385-footer to right field marked his second long ball in September.
The runs didn’t stop there for Boston, which later saved them. The Red Sox’ bats scored seven runs in the eighth inning to take an 11-3 advantage, featuring RBI from Nate Eaton, Ceddanne Rafaela, Trevor Story, Masataka Yoshida, Romy Gonzalez, and Nathaniel Lowe.
The frame saw a much-needed explosive showing from Boston’s batters, coming off back-to-back series losses to the Athletics and New York Yankees.
The Red Sox are tied with the Houston Astros for the final two American League Wild Card spots. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians, winners of eight straight, are firmly in the teams’ rearview mirrors.
These final two series mean more for Boston than they may have anticipated one week ago. But Bregman, a player who’s played in the postseason every year since entering the league in 2016, isn’t worried about his club’s chances.
“This is the kind of offensive day that we’re capable of every single night. Obviously it’s not gonna go that way every night, but it’s good to see,” he said. “Just continue to stack good days like this and continue to take it one pitch at a time.”
“The last few games hadn’t been going our way,” he later added. “We hadn’t really done much, but I think that could be a really good thing for this group going forward.”
Entering the ninth inning, it seemed as if Boston had an easy win to claim. Not so fast, said Rays center fielder Everson Pereira.
Pereira clubbed a grand slam off of Red Sox reliever Chris Murphy with two outs, decreasing the Red Sox’ comfortable 11-3 lead to 11-7 with one swing.
Fortunately for Boston, Murphy held on and secured the final out. But that grand slam was a sobering reminder of this ball club’s weaknesses.
If not for Boston’s lineup finally driving in runners on base in that thrilling eighth inning, Friday may not have been as easy a win as it ended up being. Its pitching can’t afford to make mistakes when its batters are off, and vice versa, of late.
Nevertheless, the veteran Bregman doubled down on his confidence in himself and his teammates despite his team’s playoff odds dipping over the last week.
“I feel like the mentality in here is, we don’t wanna just get into the playoffs, we wanna play well in the playoffs and go play for another month,” he said. “For us, I feel like getting back to playing our best brand of baseball on a consistent basis is super important. That’s why I feel like the last few days could be good for us. We can learn a lot from it and I feel like this team is ready to roll.”
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