When this past week’s crucial eight-game road trip began, the Red Sox were 27-34 away from Fenway Park and coming off a disappointing 2-3 homestand.
With the postseason chase heating up, the Red Sox needed to turn things around on the road in a hurry, and boy, did they ever.
Thursday the Red Sox completed their best road trip of the season, beating the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 to finish a four-game sweep and cap off a 7-1 trip. Romy Gonzalez drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the top of the eighth, and Garrett Whitlock and Steven Matz closed out the win from there.
Now the Red Sox return to Fenway Park leading the AL Wild Card race and only 3.5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East standings.
Trevor Story gave the Red Sox a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first when he hit a solo shot for his 22nd home run of the season. Story is also up to 23 stolen bases, making him one of four players in Red Sox history to tally at least 22 homers and 23 stolen bases in a season.
The others are Mookie Betts (2016, 2017, 2018), Carl Yastrzemski (1970) and Jacoby Ellsbury (2011).
“Just a good player playing elite baseball, we’re very proud of him,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Story. “Last year he made a point of playing in September, if it was someone else he could have mailed it in, said you know what I’m going to rehab and be ready for next year, but he wanted to play, he wanted to be with the boys, he missed the game and all that work he put in last year is paying off.”
The Orioles tied the game on a solo homer by Alex Jackson off Garrett Crochet to lead off the third, but Rob Refsnyder — fresh off being activated from the injured list — came up big with a leadoff shot of his own in the fourth.
From there, Crochet had to battle to keep the Orioles at bay.
Baltimore led off the fourth with consecutive singles and got men at the corners with one out, but Crochet was able to keep it a 2-1 game by retiring the next two batters. He wasn’t as fortunate in the fifth, however, when he hit the leadoff batter, allowed a single and then gave up the game-tying RBI double to Jeremiah Jackson.
That also put two men in scoring position with two outs, but Crochet escaped without further damage after striking out Gunnar Henderson and drawing a line drive from Ryan Mountcastle. That ball would likely have scored two runs, but Story made an incredible diving catch and then doubled up the runner at third to end the inning.
Crochet finished his outing with a 1-2-3 sixth, giving him a final line of two runs allowed over six innings on six hits, no walks, two hit batsman and seven strikeouts. It was a grind, but it’ll still go into the books as Crochet’s 18th quality start in 27 outings.
“Off command-wise it felt like, but he made some pitches when he had to,” Cora said. “And that play by Trevor, that was the game-changer.”
Gonzalez gave the Red Sox the lead for good in the eighth when he hit a two-out RBI single to drive in Roman Anthony, and Whitlock preserved the lead in the bottom of the frame when he struck out Dylan Beavers with two on and two out.
Finally, with Aroldis Chapman unavailable after throwing 24 pitches in Wednesday’s win, Matz got the ball with a one-run lead in the ninth. He gave up a leadoff double but benefitted from another defensive gem by Story, who erased the lead runner at third on a grounder up the middle.
From there Matz retired Jackson Holliday and Jeremiah Jackson without incident to record his first save as a member of the Red Sox, who are now a season-high 15 games over .500 at 75-60 with the last-place Pirates coming to town this weekend.
“I feel great, it’s hard to do, to beat a team in the big leagues four times in a row is hard and to go 7-1 in New York and Baltimore against the pitching that we faced,” Cora said. “It was a great road trip and tomorrow should be fun.”
Slaten, Refsnyder activated
Prior to Thursday’s series finale the Red Sox activated right-hander Justin Slaten from the 60-day injured list and Refsnyder from the 10-day IL. The club also placed first baseman Nathaniel Lowe on the paternity leave list and optioned left-hander Jovani Moran to Triple-A.
Password’s first hit
After going hitless in his first four MLB games, Jhostynxon Garcia finally broke through for his first big league hit on Thursday, lining a double down the left field line to lead off the top of the fifth. Garcia finished 1 for 3.
Tolle vs. Skenes
Two of baseball’s premier young pitchers will take the mound at Fenway Park on Friday, as Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes is scheduled to start this weekend’s series opener against top Red Sox pitching prospect Payton Tolle, who sources confirmed to the Herald is being called up to make his MLB debut.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was first to report Tolle’s promotion.
Tolle, a 22-year-old left-hander, was Boston’s second-round pick in last year’s MLB Draft and has rapidly risen through the organization in his first season of professional ball. The former TCU standout started the year at High-A Greenville and has now earned three promotions, going to Double-A Portland, Triple-A Worcester and now Boston in less than six months.
Overall, Tolle has a 3.04 ERA with 133 strikeouts in 91.2 innings in 20 minor league outings, and after allowing two home runs in the first inning of his Triple-A debut has since given up just one run in his last 14 innings with the WooSox.
Now he’ll take the mound for the big league club in a pennant race against arguably the best pitcher in baseball.
Skenes is now in his second big league season after going No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, and after winning Rookie of the Year and finishing third in last year’s Cy Young vote the 23-year-old right-hander is the runaway favorite to win the award this year. Entering Friday, Skenes has an MLB-best 2.07 ERA with 181 strikeouts in 161 innings.
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