This was shaping up to be a disastrous start to the second half for the Red Sox, who couldn’t buy a run through the first two and a half games of this weekend’s series at Wrigley Field.
Then Wilyer Abreu stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh, and suddenly everything changed.
Abreu hit two late home runs, including a go-ahead two-run shot that powered the Red Sox to a 6-1 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. Alex Bregman followed with a pinch hit three-run home run in the eighth, and Abreu hit a solo shot his next time up to help the club avoid a potentially devastating three-game sweep.
“It was very exciting,” Abreu told NESN’s Jahmai Webster via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez following the game. “A very emotional moment when you’re behind the whole game and you come through for your team and you put the team ahead with that home run.”
While Garrett Crochet wasn’t as overpowering as usual, he still did more than enough to keep the Red Sox in the game. The left-hander allowed just one run over six innings on an Ian Happ RBI single in the bottom of the second, and in the fifth he escaped a bases-loaded jam unscathed by drawing an inning-ending forceout at second.
Crochet finished with five strikeouts, including two in the sixth to help strand a runner at third, while allowing eight hits and two walks.
Offensively, the Red Sox got nothing against Cubs starter Cade Horton, who diced up Boston’s batters over 5.2 scoreless innings. Horton retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced and didn’t allow a Red Sox batter to advance past first until the top of the sixth.
Horton limited the Red Sox to two hits and three walks, one of which was drawn by Jarren Duran to lead off the sixth. Duran wound up advancing to third on a groundout and an interference call at second, but Horton finished his outing by drawing another groundout for the inning’s second out, and then left-hander Caleb Thielbar came on and struck out Masataka Yoshida to end the threat.
But the Red Sox finally broke through in the seventh.
After Trevor Story drew a leadoff walk off Cubs reliever Ryan Pressly, Abreu delivered the swing of the weekend with a towering two-run shot to right field. The blast marked Boston’s first runs scored in 22 innings dating back to the top of the third on Friday afternoon, and it also gave the Red Sox their first lead of the series.
Garrett Whitlock came on in relief of Crochet and posted a scoreless seventh to keep it a one-run lead, and then Duran walked and Roman Anthony singled to give Boston another opportunity in the eighth.
That set the stage for Bregman, who was expected to have the day off but who instead got the pinch hit opportunity against former Red Sox lefty Drew Pomeranz. He crushed an 0-1 curveball 402 feet to the left field stands, giving Boston some badly needed daylight.
“We talked about it before the game, he said I feel good, (head trainer Brandon Henry) feels like I could play today so I’ll be ready in the second part of the game, and it just played into our advantage,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters in Chicago. “Lefty on the mound, Masa coming up, we were thinking of putting him in to play defense and moving everybody back to their normal positions and the kid did what he usually does.”
Abreu extended the lead with his solo shot later in the inning, his 20th home run of the season, and the Cubs never seriously threatened again.
“Willy is a good player, a good defender, a good hitter, when he’s locked in the at bats go longer,” Cora said. “He saw the ball pretty well today and he put in two good swings.”
Though the Red Sox (54-47) lost the series, they’ll still go into this week’s meeting with the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies with a 12-3 mark in July. Walker Buehler (6-6, 6.12) is expected to take the mound Monday against Philadelphia ace Zack Wheeler (9-3, 2.36) for the series opener.
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