Adley Rutschman may be healthy after all.
Two days after interim Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said that the catcher’s elbow injury would likely present problems through the remainder of the season, and after Rutschman sat out for the entirety of Boston’s series against the Mariners, Rutschman returned to the lineup when the Red Sox visited Baltimore on Thursday night.
The start was important for the Red Sox, who traded away several top prospects to acquire Rutschman at the trade deadline, and for the city of Baltimore, where Rutschman came up as a No. 1 overall pick.
The fans in Baltimore welcomed Rutschman back to Camden Yards with a standing ovation in the top of the first inning. Those same fans weren’t quite so happy to see him three pitches later, when he crushed a hanging curveball deep to right field for a home run.
Rutschman’s home run may have looked familiar to the Baltimore crowd, but it’s been a rare sight during his Red Sox career, as it was just his second home run in 16 games with Boston.
That number would increase again, though, in the top of the sixth, when he turned on an inside fastball from starter Brandon Young. This homer was a no-doubter.
At the time of the second homer, the Red Sox still trailed 3-2, as Red Sox starter Jake Bennett surrendered two longballs himself — one to Pete Alonso, another to Luis Robert Jr.
Yet in what shaped up to be a battle of home runs, the Red Sox emerged victorious.
After an Isiah Kiner-Falefa RBI single tied the game in the seventh, Nick Sogard hit a two-run home run in the eighth to give Boston a 5-3 lead.
Roman Anthony homered for the second consecutive game in the top of the ninth to add an insurance run.
The homer was Anthony’s fifth extra-base hit since being activated from the injured list on Sunday, and the run proved to be quite valuable when Aroldis Chapman served up yet another home run — a two-run shot — in the bottom of the ninth.
Chapman managed to earn the save, his 31st of the season, in a 6-5 Red Sox win that featured seven combined home runs. The win snapped a rough stretch for the Red Sox, who had lost six of their last eight games.
