Red Sox play catch-up
Hang on to tie for second
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Alas, the Red Sox have caught one of their division rivals.
Chris Sale threw 116 pitches — tied for most since Alex Cora took the reins as manager — and Christian Vazquez hit a pinch-hit, goahead homer in the seventh inning to lead the Sox to a 5-4 win against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
It was the seventh loss in eight games for the Rays, and second in a row at the hands of the Red Sox, who finally have caught them in the standings.
For the first time all year, the Red Sox (56-46) are not behind the Rays (57-47) in the American League East. And they’re a season-high 10 games above .500.
Both teams remain well behind the first-place Yankees and also the A’s for the second wild card spot. But tying the Rays represents a milestone for a Sox team that hasn’t had many this year.
Their first goal was to reach five games above .500, which took them until midJune. Cora hasn’t said what his next goal was, but it seems monumental that his team is aiding in the unraveling of the Rays’ once-promising season just a week before the July 31 trade deadline.
Sale was sloppy for his standards, misfiring regularly but with enough movement on his fastball and slider to strike out 10 in six innings of two-run ball.
He pitched out of some trouble and was done in only by a two-run homer off the bat of Travis d’Arnaud in the third inning. Sale tried coming in with a slider and d’Arnaud lifted it over the left field fence to erase the Sox’ 2-0 lead.
With two outs in the sixth, Sale was sitting at 114 pitches with the go-ahead run on first base. Cora jogged to the mound, but when he got there didn’t ask for the ball. He had a quick chat with his ace, and then Sale finished the inning by retiring Guillermo Herredia on two pitches.
The Sox had a chance to break the tie in the top of the sixth, when Brock Holt was up with two men on base and two outs. The Rays had the matchup advantage with the left-handed Colin Poche a vicious pitcher against lefty batters. But Cora chose not to pinch-hit, and Holt flew out to end the attack.
It was later, in the eighth, when Cora used Michael Chavis (back spasms) to pinch-hit for Holt with two men on and one out. Chavis struck out.
But by that time, the Sox were already ahead comfortably thanks to the ongoing heroics of Vazquez, who is having a season that nobody could have predicted a year ago. Or ever, for that matter.
Vazquez came off the bench to pinch-hit for Mitch Moreland and hammered a 402-foot shot to left-center. It was his 16th homer of the season after hit just 10 combined in four previous seasons in the big leagues.
He’s pummeled the ball all year, connecting with an average exit velocity of 89 mph, much higher than his previous marks of 85-87 mph. And his hard-hit percentage (balls hit harder than 95 mph) is 41 percent. Two years ago, he ranked in the bottom 5 percent of the league with just 22 percent.
The Sox added two more in the eighth and Brandon Workman came on for a two-inning save.
Workman had an easy eighth but allowed one run and loaded the bases in the ninth, throwing 44 pitches before Cora chose to remove him for Marcus Walden. It was the second straight appearance of 40-plus pitches for Workman, who had thrown 45 in a five-out save against the Blue Jays six days earlier.
Walden came on and walked in another run but got Austin Meadows to ground out to Vazquez at first base to end the threat.
David Price is on the bump in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon.