A blast from Sox past
Bradley HR wins it, Sale hits 2,000 K’s
CLEVELAND — On certain nights this season, when you strip away the standings and the win-loss record and the bouts of inconsistency, the 2019 Red Sox will remind you of the 2018 Red Sox.
Last night at Progressive Field was one of those nights — for about six innings, at least.
Then, just as the current squad appeared ready to revert to their inconsistent ways and blow a lead, which it did, the offense stepped up and the pitching stepped up a little more and the Red Sox won, 7-6 in 10 innings, what they may look back on as one of their most important wins of the season.
Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 10th inning home run broke the tie and stood up for the win.
Preserving the win was so important, manager Alex Cora turned to Wednesday’s scheduled starter Nathan Eovaldi to collect two critical outs in the eighth, which he did by stranding the tying run at second base.
Brandon Workman, however, could not protect the 6-5 lead in the ninth, with Francisco Lindor doubling in the tying run.
Newly minted reliever and ex-starter Andrew Cashner did his job, allowing one hit and then retiring the Indians in order to gain the save.
You can thank Chris Sale for sponsoring the 2019 throwback experience for much of the evening, which was decidedly one-sided until a seventh-inning error by third baseman Rafael Devers led to two unearned runs that turned a comfortable 6-3 lead into the tighter affair.
Devers set a career high with six hits.
For the second start in a row, Sale returned to ace form by mostly dominating a deep and dangerous Indians lineup. With the exception of a pair of mistakes that resulted in a solo homer by Carlos Santana in the fourth and then a two-run shot by Franmil Reyes in the sixth, Sale was confounding Cleveland’s lineup with an assortment of crisply spotted and hard-breaking sliders, fastballs and changeups.
He led off the seventh with a walk, but one out later, a ball skipped by Devers at the hot corner and the Indians had runners on the corners with one out.
Tyler Naquin popped up for the second out but Lindor greeted Sale by ripping a double to left for the two runs and suddenly close 6-5 ballgame.
With his inning-ending strikeout of Oscar Mercado in the third, Sale became the fastest pitcher ever to 2,000 strikeouts. He needed only 1,626 innings, easily topping Pedro Martinez, who in 2002 reached 2,000 in 1,733⅓ innings.
In his 6⅔ innings, Sale allowed five hits and five runs, three earned, with a dozen strrikeouts and two walks.
While Sale was rolling, he was getting a fair, and rare, amount of run support on a night when it was an early luxury.
Devers knocked in the first run, doubling in Mookie Betts who led off the game with a triple off of Mike Clevinger.
Betts singled in a run in the second inning to give the Red Sox the 2-0 lead. On the same play, Sandy Leon, whose base-running comp is Doug Mirabelli, got thrown out at third base after trying to trot there from first on Betts’ single to left.
In the fifth inning, right after the Santana home run, back to back RBI singles from Mitch Moreland and Marco Hernandez upped the Red Sox’ lead to 4-1.
The Red Sox tacked on two more superfluous runs in the seven-batter sixth inning, when Devers doubled in the pair.