The Boston Red Sox lineup has gone through several iterations this season. Prospects have been promoted, injuries have occurred and platoons have been shuffled.
The best iteration of the Red Sox roster includes Romy Gonzalez and Rob Refsnyder. While each of them has missed some time due to injury, when healthy, they’re in the lineup against southpaws.
Refsnyder was activated on Thursday after spending time on the injured list with an oblique injury, and didn’t skip a beat. In the fourth inning, he took Baltimore Orioles starter Cade Povich deep to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
“It’s crazy, he never fails to amaze me. He’s such a good hitter. I mean, he’s been doing it for a long time now. He constantly just proves people wrong, especially after a layoff like that, coming back from an oblique and just being able to put the bat on the ball and just have quality at-bats time and time again is just so impressive,” Gonzalez said.
Refsnyder gave credit to the Red Sox training staff for getting him ready to play. It came at the perfect time, too. Entering today’s game, Refsnyder was 5-9 with two home runs and two walks against Povich.
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“It really helped having [Alex] Bregman, Trevor [Story] and Romy in front of me. Kinda see some sequences, kinda see how the pitches were moving and stuff like that. They had some really good at-bats,” Refsnyder said.
In the eighth inning with the game tied, Gonzalez came to the plate with a runner on second, this time against a righty. He was up to the task, though, and singled in what would go on to be the game-winning run.
“It was definitely huge. Obviously, I haven’t been swinging it too well the past couple of weeks, but we’ve been winning, so that’s all that matters,” Gonzalez said.
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Steven Matz closed the door in the ninth inning, and the Red Sox beat the Orioles, 3-2.
