A week ago, when the Red Sox authored the single best game in their remarkable winning stretch, Caleb Durbin delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 13th inning, following an intentional walk to Wilyer Abreu.
“They walked the guy in front of me,” Durbin said in his walkoff interview before getting doused by a cooler full of ice water. “I had to make ’em pay.”
Fast-forward seven days, and the vibes around the Red Sox were distinctly different. In the span of five days, the Red Sox had matched their loss total from the previous 44 days. In a bit of a spiral, the Red Sox badly needed to salvage a win on Thursday afternoon in Toronto.
Starter Payton Tolle did all he could, buzzing through Blue Jays hitters and allowing just four base runners (two hits, two walks) in eight shutout innings. But outside of an RBI double from Willson Contreras in the top of the first inning, the Red Sox were struggling to build upon their lead.
But in the top of the eighth, Contreras surprised everyone by dropping down a sacrifice bunt — just the sixth of his career — to move runners up to second and third with one out. And with first base open, Blue Jays manager John Schneider called for an intentional walk of Masataka Yoshida.
As far as baseball moves go, the intentional walk was the obvious call. It eliminated a right-left matchup for pitcher Chase Lee and set up the double play for anything hit on the infield.
Similarly, when the White Sox walked Abreu last week at Fenway, it avoided a right-left matchup for Chicago’s pitcher and set up the potential for a double-play ball on the infield.
But baseball players have a remarkable ability to tune out from logical explanations in order to derive inspiration. And Durbin once again made an opponent regret the intentional walk.
This time, though, he didn’t single. Instead, he clobbered a hanging 80 mph sweeper that caught all of the plate, sending a no-doubter out to left field. When it came down, the 1-0 lead grew to 5-0.
(Though it was a significantly lower-leverage situation, Durbin also delivered an RBI single against the Rays on July 17 following an intentional walk of Abreu. That hit, though, turned a 7-0 lead into an 8-0 lead and thus did not have quite the same impact.)
It was Durbin’s second career grand slam, with his first one coming earlier in that series against the White Sox last week.
In many ways, the Red Sox have gone as Durbin has gone, as the 26-year-old went from hitting .162 with a .479 OPS to .253 with a .732 OPS. He’s been battling through an injured pinky since last week but has stayed in the lineup every day.
Durbin added an RBI single in the ninth to cap off a 3-for-5, five-RBI day in a badly needed 7-0 win for the Red Sox before they head to Pittsburgh for a weekend series.
In addition to carrying the bulk of the offensive load in this one, Durbin also sent a reminder to the rest of the league that even if there’s some logic to doing so, it’s not a great idea to intentionally walk the man batting ahead of him.
