TAMPA – The Red Sox needed a big hit as much as they needed water on a hot Friday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The type of moment that had been annoyingly elusive for Boston, over the last two weeks at least, appeared via Jarren Duran’s bat.
As Duran mauled a go-ahead two-run homer to right in the top of the seventh that fueled the Red Sox to an 11-7 victory over the Rays, he posed as the ball took flight.
You can’t blame the outfielder for enjoying the moment as the baseball landed on top of the roof of a bar beyond the right-field stands. It was a hit his team badly needed to regain some good vibrations heading into this crucial final stretch.
“Honestly, it felt like a 20-pound weight was off my shoulders. I feel like I've been just trying to do so much,” said Duran. “I went up to Rob [Refsnyder] and I was like, ‘I feel bad, because I don't usually do that.’ But I felt like it was just kind of like a relaxation moment that I was able to put a quality at-bat together and do that for the team.”
After Duran broke the seal and put his team up 4-3, the Sox broke it open with seven runs in the eighth, aided by some sloppy defense by the Rays.
In the opener of the final road trip of the season, three in Tampa followed by three in Toronto, the Red Sox (84-70) allowed themselves to breathe a bit easier.
With eight games left in the season, Boston is two games behind the Yankees for the top American League Wild Card spot and tied with the Astros for second. The sizzling Guardians are just 1 1/2 games back. The Red Sox own the tiebreaker against all three of those clubs by virtue of winning the season series.
“I feel like the mentality here is we don't want to just get into the playoffs. We want to play well in the playoffs and go play for another month,” said Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman. “So for us, I feel like getting back to playing our best brand of baseball on a consistent basis is super important. So that's why I feel like the last few days [of struggling] could be good for us. We can learn a lot from it. And I feel like this team is ready to roll."
The offense, which has struggled to produce with Roman Anthony (left oblique strain) and Wilyer Abreu (right calf strain) on the injured list at the same time and several other players slumping simultaneously, came to life.
Bregman smashed just his second homer since Aug. 13, a solo shot to left in the third. Ceddanne Rafaela came through with four hits, including an RBI single in Boston's seven-run eighth inning.
On a night ace Garrett Crochet turned in a quality start (six innings, four hits, three runs, three walks, nine strikeouts), his teammates made sure it didn’t go to waste.
Not content with 98 pitches, Crochet unsuccessfully lobbied manager Alex Cora for the chance to go back out for the seventh.
“I felt like I had more to give,” Crochet said. “Felt like, outside of the two homers, I was dominating, and even including those, I felt like I got off barrel enough for them to stay in the park. But when you're this close to the water, the ball tends to travel. It is what it is."
The late-game barrage allowed Cora the opportunity to rest his elite setup/closer combo of Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman, even after lefty Chris Murphy allowed a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth.
It was the first time the Red Sox scored double digits since Sept. 2 – the night Anthony got injured. Nearly all of the team’s recent games have been white-knuckle wins or losses.
“I joked with them before the game,” Cora said. “I said, ‘Keep me away from this one. I don't want to make decisions.’ They did a good job.”
The whole night seemed to swing on Duran’s 16th homer of the season, which was only Boston’s second long ball with runners on base since Anthony went down.
“It was a big swing,” Crochet said. “Very uplifting.”