After shedding 16 of 19 video games to the Toronto Blue Jays final yr, the Red Sox have turned the tables on their division rivals in an unbelievable means this season.
When the Blue Jays got here to Fenway in May, the Red Sox greeted them with a four-game sweep. On Sunday in Toronto, the Boston baseball workforce capped off their go to to the Great White North by profitable 5-4 to comb them once more.
Unfortunately, the sequence finale and all its goodness have been overshadowed by the sport’s inauspicious beginnings.
Garrett Whitlock’s tenth begin of the season started properly sufficient. His sinker velocity was constant, and apart from a solo residence run to Brandon Belt, the affable righty’s first inning was fast and quiet.
But he didn’t return for the second. His day ended after one body with what the Red Sox referred to as “right elbow tightness.” Suddenly, the pitching workers needed to cobble collectively a bullpen sport.
Brennan Bernardino took over for Whitlock, and Kaleb Ort and Nick Pivetta adopted. The Blue Jays by no means collected greater than two hits and one run in opposition to any of them, although Ort was charged with a blown save for permitting the Blue Jays to take a 3-2 lead throughout his 2/3 innings of labor within the backside of the third.
Pivetta was the one Red Sox pitcher on the mound for 2 or extra innings, however as a former starter, 4 frames is a reasonably straightforward day on the workplace. He held the Blue Jays to 2 hits and one earned run, a solo homer, walked two, and struck out six earlier than turning the sport over to Chris Martin, who pitched an ideal eighth.
Alex Cora was filled with reward for his pitching workers.
“Berny (Bernardino) was outstanding again,” Cora raved to reporters, and praised Pivetta for “attacking.”
What’s to be stated about Martin that hasn’t already been stated? The veteran righty owns a 1.73 ERA on the season and has been the ace of the bullpen since coming off the injured record on April 30. He’s solely allowed 5 earned runs all season (none since June 6), and hasn’t issued a stroll to any of his final 67 batters confronted.
As the bullpen took care of enterprise, Jarren Duran put collectively a historic day. The centerfielder’s fourth double of the sport matched the MLB single-game document, one thing no Red Sox hitter had performed since Rafael Devers in August 2019.
Duran additionally scored thrice, making him the primary Red Sox participant with 4 doubles and no less than three runs scored in a single 9-inning sport since Rick Miller on May 11, 1981. Coincidentally, his massive day was additionally in opposition to the Blue Jays in Toronto.
To name this season a renaissance for the younger outfielder could be an understatement. Duran debuted in July 2021 and hit .219 with a .622 OPS over 91 video games between his first two years within the majors. Struggling each offensively and defensively, he shuttled forwards and backwards between Triple-A Worcester, and wasn’t chosen to the big-league workforce’s Opening Day roster this yr.
Duran entered Sunday with the fifth-most doubles within the majors, an achievement made all of the extra spectacular by the truth that he started the yr in Triple-A and didn’t play his first main league sport of the season till April 17. By sport’s finish, he was one double away from tying Alex Verdugo for the workforce lead (26). Instead, he singled for his fifth hit, however going 5-for-5 nonetheless set a profession excessive.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox didn’t have almost sufficient to indicate for Duran’s efforts. It was a 4-4 sport by means of eight, largely as a result of the visiting workforce continues to battle with runners on; coming into the ninth, they have been 3-for-14 with runners in scoring place, with 10 males stranded, together with leaving the bases loaded for the second sport in a row. The backside 4 hitters within the lineup (Triston Casas, Kiké Hernández, David Hamilton, Connor Wong) have been 0-for-17 within the contest.
Verdugo was 0-for-4 when he stepped as much as lead off the highest of the ninth. All of a sudden, it wasn’t a tie sport anymore; he despatched the primary pitch he noticed hovering into the stands for a go-ahead residence run. No higher time for the outfielder to gather his first homer since May 1, and the fiftieth of his profession.
How did it really feel to hit his first residence run in over two months?
“Very aware,” he instructed NESN’s Jahmai Webster, with amusing.
Rafael Devers reached base for the fifth time, then stole his first base of the season, however it was for naught, as Hernández floor out to make his an 0-for-5 day. He alone was liable for 5 of the 11 males Boston left on base within the sport.
Once once more, the Red Sox and Blue Jays took a too-close-for-comfort sport into the underside of the ninth. And as a result of Kenley Jansen had transformed his first four-out save in over a yr on Saturday, Boston didn’t have its veteran nearer obtainable, both. He was, nevertheless, named to his fourth All-Star Game about an hour later.
Instead, Joe Jacques entered a ninth inning for the primary time in his profession, searching for his first main league save. Less than a month after his MLB debut, the 28-year-old lefty acquired the Blue Jays 1-2-3 to deliver the weekend to a triumphant finish.
“It was fun, it was a great team win,” the Red Sox supervisor stated.
Whitlock will get an MRI on Monday. The pitcher instructed reporters that his elbow had been stiff earlier than Sunday, however felt totally different from the nerve concern that landed him on the injured record earlier within the season.
“To sweep them at their home is big for us,” Verdugo stated, including that their play in Toronto felt like a giant momentum increase. “We just gotta keep working.”
They have their work lower out for them this week, once they return residence to host an intimidating opponent.
All-Star Nathan Eovaldi and the Texas Rangers arrive on Tuesday for 3 video games. They’re main the American League West, and together with the Tampa Bay Rays, are the one two AL groups with 50 or extra wins.
The upcoming sequence could be an uphill battle for a more healthy workforce. For a Red Sox workforce with out Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Corey Kluber, and now Whitlock, it’s David versus a workforce of Goliaths.
Source: www.bostonherald.com