Sox’ Benny factor
RED SOX 6 ATHLETICS 2 Offense rides on rookie bat
A year ago, a 22-year-old Andrew Benintendi was getting ready to play in his 22nd major league game for an offense that was the best in baseball thanks to 40-year-old MVP candidate David Ortiz.
Yesterday, Benintendi wiggled his stake into the ground and proclaimed himself the most important hitter in the Red Sox’ lineup with another multi-hit performance from the 3-hole.
Benintendi was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and three RBI to lead the Red Sox to a 6-2 win over the Oakland A’s that secured their third straight series win to finish the homestand.
“It’s big,” Benintendi said. “Going on our last road trip,10 days, to leave on a high note is big.”
Since going 0-for-18 with five strikeouts over a four-game stretch last week, Benintendi is 11-for22 with six doubles and eight RBI in five games.
“I didn’t even know that,” he said of his minislump. “It’s such a long season. You get so many at-bats. That’s kind of been something I’ve been through before this season. Just got to keep swinging.
“I think I kind of recognize (the slumps) sooner than I did earlier in the year. Just try to make things more simple, whether it be hitting the ball the other way, moving the runner, things like that, good things will happen.”
Now he’s not only the Red Sox’ hottest hitter since the beginning of August, he’s one of the hottest hitters in baseball in that span. His .322 average and .937 OPS is better than MVP candidates Jose Altuve and Jose Ramirez, among others. Only 18 players have been better.
Drew Pomeranz threw another strong outing, going six innings and allowing just one run to lower his ERA to 3.28. It was his league-leading 21st start in which he allowed two runs or fewer.
The last-place A’s did him a favor, running into a pair of outs on the bases, including an inning-ending out in the fifth, when it looked like Oakland was about to knock Pomeranz from the game.
With runners on second and third, Josh Phegley hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Matt Chapman, but Mark Canha got caught midway between second and third when the throw hit the cutoff man as Canha committed the sin of making the inning’s last out at third base.
Christian Vazquez drove his fifth homer of the season, this time clearing everything over the Green Monster to tie the game in the fifth.
Benintendi took over from there.
On a low breaking ball from starter Daniel Gossett, he took a smooth swing and lifted it to the highest part of the Monster in left-center to score Dustin Pedroia for an RBI double.
With Gossett knocked out of the game, Mitch Moreland doubled in Benintendi and the Red Sox had a 3-1 lead.
In the seventh, after Rafael Devers scored on a sacrifice fly, the Sox put runners on second and third for the sweetswinging Benintendi. Both scored when Oakland reliever Santiago Casilla dropped a breaking ball that Benintendi casually pummelled to right-center.
Instead of the Red Sox’ bullpen sweating it out for three innings, it had a fluffy four-run cushion.
With his 25th double of the season, Benintendi became the fifth rookie since 2012 to drive in at least 80 runs with at least 25 doubles. The last three — Kris Bryant, Jose Abreu and Mike Trout — each won Rookie of the Year honors while Yoenis Cespedes finished second to Trout in 2012.
“Brock Holt taped my bottom hand of my bat with some Lizard Skin,” Benintendi said. “My hand slips off the bat sometimes. When he does that, it tends to stay on, so you can give credit to Brock Holt.”
Benintendi might not do enough to beat out Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the Rookie of the Year honor, but he does lead all major league rookies with 144 hits.
And he’s carried the Red Sox offense for the better part of six weeks.
“He’s responded very well (to hitting in the middle of the order),” manager John Farrell said. “And yes, he has embraced it. It’s allowed our lineup to flow a little bit better with he and Mookie (Betts) in that 2-3-4 spot, somewhere in there. And then Pedey’s return. He’s come back and made such an impact offensively, even though the footspeed is limited, still the number of key timely base hits, sacrifice fly late today, all three of those guys are doing a very good job.”