Wilyer Abreu wasn’t even originally supposed to start on Monday. It wasn’t until Roman Anthony was scratched moments before first pitch that he took his place in right field.
“Like two minutes before the game,” Wilyer Abreu said via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “That’s when I found out I was going to play.”
The Red Sox were sure glad he was there in the top of the eighth.
After bludgeoning Kansas City Royals starter Bailey Falter and jumping out to a seven-run lead, the Red Sox nearly saw things come completely off the rails after the Royals rallied for four runs late. But when Bobby Witt Jr. singled off Garrett Whitlock and Nick Loftin broke for home, Abreu saved the day by gunning down the runner at the plate, ending the inning and helping preserve the unexpectedly dramatic 8-5 victory.
“Today was a very abnormal day but I’m glad that I was able to have a great game and we were able to win,” Abreu said.
For a while it looked as if the Red Sox were on cruise control.
Boston scored five runs right out the chute in the top of the first inning, with Rob Refsnyder breaking the ice with a two-run single with the bases loaded and Jarren Duran delivering a haymaker in the form of a towering three-run home run.
From there Brayan Bello posted yet another quality start, his 10th in 11 starts dating back to the beginning of June.
Falter faltered immediately out of the gate, allowing back-to-back singles by Romy Gonzalez and Alex Bregman before walking Abreu to load the bases with nobody out. That brought up Refsnyder, who owns an eye-popping .913 OPS against lefties this season and predictably lined one into center field to put the Red Sox up 2-0.
Following a mound visit Falter appeared to regroup and forced a pair of pop-outs. But his fortune ran out when Duran, batting seventh in large part because of his comparatively paltry .561 OPS against lefties, crushed a 2-2 slider 419 feet to deep center field.
Bello allowed only one unearned run over his six innings of work, surrendering a sacrifice fly by Adam Frazier in the top of the fourth after Salvador Perez initially reached on an error at second base.
Before that the right-hander stranded a runner in scoring position in the second inning, escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third and later drew an inning-ending double play to end the fifth.
He also benefitted from a spectacular leaping catch by Duran in left field to end the fourth, which saved a run and prevented him from potentially running up a high pitch count early.
“We have a very solid defense behind me, the outfield, Rafaela, Abreu, Duran, they’re amazing and also the infield, they’re very solid, they’re great,” Bello said via interpreter Benítez. “So that gives me the confidence to throw strikes and try to get quick outs.”
Bello finished with six hits and one walk allowed along with five strikeouts.
The Red Sox tacked on a sixth run in the third after Trevor Story walked, stole second and scored on a Ceddanne Rafaela single. Story is now a perfect 19 for 19 on stolen base attempts this season, which according to the Red Sox is one shy of Julio Lugo’s franchise record of 20 set in 2007.
Bregman hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and Abreu added an RBI single of his own off Royals reliever Sam Long in the seventh to make it 8-1.
Then things got uncomfortable.
Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia greeted Red Sox right-hander Jorge Alcala with back-to-back solo home runs to lead off the eighth. Mike Yastrzemski followed with a double off the wall and reached third on an error by Duran, which chased Alcala from the game.
Left-hander Justin Wilson then allowed two more runs to score on a single by Adam Frazier and a double by Loftin. He struck out Randal Grichuk for the second out and handed the ball off to Whitlock, but Jonathan India drew a walk, bringing up Witt, the Royals’ franchise shortstop.
Witt appeared to cut the deficit to two, but thanks to Abreu’s arm the bleeding stopped there. Aroldis Chapman made sure there’d be no more drama in the ninth, locking down his 21st save of the season with a perfect top of the ninth.
With the win the Red Sox have won eight of their last nine and are now a season-high 12 games over .500 at 63-51. The last time Boston was 12 games over .500 was in 2021, when the club finished 92-70 and made the playoffs as the first AL Wild Card team.
The Red Sox are firmly in control of that same spot now, and at the rate things are going it’s getting easier to imagine this club playing meaningful baseball in October once more.
Anthony scratched
Anthony was scratched from Monday’s lineup just prior to first pitch, and the club announced shortly afterwards that the Red Sox rookie was dealing with mid-back tightness.
Following the game Cora said Anthony won’t play on Tuesday but that he should be fine after that.
“I’ll stay away from him tomorrow,” Cora said. “He’ll be ok to play tomorrow but we took today and I’ll give him tomorrow too.”
Anthony was originally slated to start in right field and bat third in Monday’s series opener. He went through pregame warmups in full uniform but shortly before first pitch was spotted grabbing his back and speaking to the trainer.
“Came out to the line, everything felt normal all day, and I felt something while I was stretching on the line and I figured we’d be cautious with it,” Anthony said. “It was super uncomfortable I relayed that quickly and we decided we’d shut it down.”
Anthony agreed with Cora’s sentiment that he should be good to play by Wednesday, noting that he already felt better postgame than he did during warmups.
“Obviously I’ll get with the training staff and figure that out but I’m already trending in the right direction and feeling better than where it was at earlier,” he said.
Record crowd
The Red Sox’s recent run of success clearly hasn’t gone unnoticed. Monday night was not only Boston’s ninth consecutive sellout at Fenway Park, but the announced paid attendance of 37,585 was the team’s highest of the season.
Beyond that, Monday was the Red Sox’s highest paid attendance at Fenway Park for a regular season game since Aug. 20, 2019, when 37,712 fans paid to see the club fall to the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2.
Originally Published:
