The Red Sox offense has been scorching hot, and coming into Thursday the club had averaged more than eight runs per game since the start of last week’s Cincinnati series, by far the most in baseball over that stretch.
The problem is those runs came against teams ranging from average to putrid. Could the Red Sox keep hitting against a playoff caliber opponent?
It took a little while, but eventually it turned out the answer was yes.
The Red Sox came from behind to beat the Rays 4-3 in Thursday’s series opener, with Ceddanne Rafaela capping off a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh with his go-ahead two-run single.
“That’s the type of team we are, we never lose hope and we always battle,” Rafaela said postgame. “It was a battle today and we won the battle.”
Besides giving Boston a season-high seven-game win streak, the Red Sox also remain in playoff position while moving just a half-game back of the Rays in the AL East standings. Especially notable was the fact the Red Sox were able to come from behind and win a one-run game, something they’ve struggled with for large stretches of the season.
“We’ve been playing good baseball for a while now and the one-run games, it means you’re in games,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It (stinks) that we’ve lost (19) of them but at one point it has to turn the other way, right?”
It looked for a while like Thursday was going to be a humbling night for the Red Sox bats.
Boston opened a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Rafaela singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Roman Anthony’s RBI single to right. The trouble is those wound up being the team’s only two hits against Rays starter Taj Bradley, who shut the Red Sox down over his six dominant innings.
Bradley struck out five, allowed three walks, and retired 10 of the last 11 hitters he faced. After the third inning he didn’t allow another Red Sox baserunner to advance past first.
With so little run support it seemed like Walker Buehler would have to be nearly perfect for Boston to have a chance. While the right-hander did deliver his first quality start since June 11, Buehler had two notable miscues.
The first came in the top of the fourth when Buehler walked Josh Lowe and served up a two-run home run to Ha-Seong Kim, his first of the season to put the Rays ahead 2-1.
Then in the top of the sixth Rays slugger Junior Caminero sent the first pitch he saw to the Green Monster seats for a solo shot, potentially a preview of things to come Monday’s Home Run Derby in Atlanta.
Buehler allowed three runs over six innings with five hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
“He was good,” Cora said. “Six innings, three runs, we’ll take that every single night.”
Once Bradley left the game after just 88 pitches, however, the Red Sox offense finally came to life. Rays reliever Bryan Baker didn’t help his cause by issuing back-to-back walks to Trevor Story and Romy Gonzalez to start the seventh, and Marcelo Mayer made the righty pay with an RBI double to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Cora called Mayer’s at bat his best of the season, and he also put the tying and go-ahead runners into scoring position for Rafaela, who was the perfect man for the job.
Rafaela has been among the hottest hitters in baseball recently, and entering Thursday he’d driven in at least one run in each of his last five games. He extended that streak to six with his base hit up the middle, which scored both Gonzalez and Mayer to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead.
Rafaela now has 43 RBI on the season, which ranks fourth on the team despite Rafaela primarily batting out of the No. 9 spot.
“Our center fielder is playing great,” Cora said. “That was a great game by him today, the tag from first, the stolen base, playing good defense, putting the ball in play with two strikes, the last month and a half he’s been amazing for us. Amazing.”
Once the Red Sox were in front, the bullpen took care of the rest. Chris Murphy and Garrett Whitlock each threw scoreless frames after Buehler left the game, and freshly minted All-Star Aroldis Chapman locked things down in the ninth for his 16th save of the season.
Now the Red Sox (50-45) have a chance to jump the Rays (50-44) in the standings. Hunter Dobbins is expected to be activated from the IL on Friday to get the start against Tampa Bay’s Drew Rasmussen.
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