Red Sox catch fire
Vazquez’ HR helps end skid
TORONTO — All they needed was a little push.
After a four-game stretch in which the Red Sox looked lifeless and complacent while their lead in the American League East slipped to less than three games for the first time since Aug.3, a little bit of a panic set in, perhaps.
Manager John Farrell finally dropped Hanley Ramirez in the batting order, then the Sox played their best game in a week, orchestrating a 6-5 win against the Toronto Blue Jays for their 32nd come-from-behind victory of the season.
“We needed that win to break the losing streak,” said Christian Vazquez, who was 4-for-4 with a two-run homer in the seventh inning that gave the Sox their first lead since Wednesday. “We’re back.”
The Sox snapped a fourgame losing streak. Combined with the New York Yankees’ 6-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians, the Sox’ lead in the East is back to 31⁄2 games.
As in many cases this season, the Sox seemed to play their best when they had a reason. They trailed 3-2 to the worst team in the division with only nine outs remaining, coming off a threegame sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.
Ramirez, who entered the game 1-for-15 in his previous four outings, finally took a nice-and-easy swing to rope a liner up the middle to start the seventh inning. Even with speedster Rajai Davis in the dugout, Farrell chose to leave Ramirez (who has made nine outs on the bases this year) on first base as the tying run.
But Vazquez made sure it didn’t matter how fast (or well) Ramirez was running. Down in the count 0-2 to Danny Barnes, the red-hot catcher turned on a highand-tight heater at 90 mph and lifted it into the second deck for a go-ahead, tworun blast.
“Always with two strikes, they pitch me up-and-in,” he said. “I was looking for that.”
Vazquez later added a double to left-center to complete a perfect night at hte plate and push his batting average to .294, second to only the Giants’ Buster Posey among major league catchers with at least 200 plate appearances.
“It’s simple,” he said. “Be simple at the plate. Don’t try to do too much and give my best. Hit it to (center) and right field. That’s my game.”
The catcher known for a big arm has turned into a clutch bat the Sox desperately need. Though Vazquez has only six career homers, five of them have come with men on base. And all six have been when the Red Sox were within two runs of their opponent.
The homer opened the floodgates for a big seventh inning, when the Sox loaded the bases and added two more runs on an infield single by Mitch Moreland and an RBI walk by Xander Bogaerts.
Not only will Farrell score points with some fans for finally dropping the slumping Ramirez in the batting order, but he surely made the mathematically savvy crowd happy with his bullpen usage.
Rather than use his best set-up man, Addison Reed, in the eighth inning, Farrell went to the right-hander in the seventh against the middle of the Jays lineup. Reed worked through the inning without issue, then Farrell used Brandon Workman to handle the eighth.
Craig Kimbrel gave the Red Sox a scare with some wildness in the ninth. He threw a hanging breaking ball that turned into a two-out, two-run blast to Justin Smoak before he closed out the game. He threw just nine of his 20 pitches for strikes.
Drew Pomeranz walked a tightrope for six innings, tying a season high while handing out five free passes. But he managed to escape disaster multiple times on his way to his 14th win of the season, thanks in large part to Vazquez.
“He has come up big,” Farrell said of his catcher. “You look at the walkoff home run, 0-2 home run, you’re never expecting that. You’re looking for just some square contact. Offensively he’s swinging the bat really well. He drives the ball into left-center field against another power right-hander. (It was a) big night offensively for Christian.”