Sox come back home
Overtake Tigers at Fenway
It was only a matter of time before the Red Sox bats woke up last night, and when they did, they did so in a loud way.
After a cold couple of nights in New York, in which the Sox mustered just one run over their last 22 innings against the Yankees, the offense finally came alive. And in the eighth inning, Jackie Bradley Jr.’s two-run homer propelled the Red Sox to a 5-3 comeback win against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox fell into a 3-0 hole, but behind Mitch Moreland, who produced multiple key hits, and Bradley, the home team came away with a much-needed victory after ending their road trip on a sour note in the Bronx.
“We’re going to need more of that,” manager John Farrell said. “We come off two tough nights where not much offensively is taking place and it took us a half-game to get on track here tonight.”
It was a 3-2 game in the eighth inning when some balls finally started to break the Sox’ way. Xander Bogaerts led off with a bloop single just in front of right fielder J.D. Martinez and advanced to second base when Tigers reliever Alex Wilson’s pickoff attempt to first rolled away.
Moreland had put the Sox on the board with a fourth-inning homer and this time around drove in Bogaerts with a game-tying single to right. Two batters later, Bradley smashed his homer well over the visitors bullpen.
“We caught a break,” Farrell said of Bogaerts’ fortunate leadoff hit. “We’ve been able to capitalize on a couple of things late in games and not just tonight. There’s been some other situations where when we do get an extra out, or a misplay, we’re taking advantage of it.”
The go-ahead home run — a 435-foot shot that Farrell joked landed close to the red seat in the bleachers — came on an 0-2, 94-mph fastball that Bradley said he was sitting on.
“It felt good, especially with the circumstance, and it feels good to get a win,” Bradley said. “It’s really important. We just lost two in a row, so we definitely wanted to start things off right back at home, and this was a big win. Hopefully it can give us some momentum.”
Spot starter Brian Johnson threw a complete-game shutout against the Seattle Mariners in his previous call-up from Triple-A Pawtucket, but struggled to get out of the first inning last night while allowing two runs, including one on a Nick Castellanos homer, on four hits.
The 27-pitch opening frame set Johnson back, and he exited with one out in the fifth after making 105 pitches and allowing another solo homer to Mikie Mahtook in the fourth, but he did enough to keep the Sox in the game.
“They ran up the pitch count on him, but still, to keep us in the game, keep them in check for the time he was on the mound, a solid job,” Farrell said. “Brian hung in there tough tonight.”
The offense picked Johnson up, and the bullpen had his back, too. Heath Hembree, Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes and Craig Kimbrel (save No. 18) combined for 42⁄ shutout 3 innings.