Verdugo walk-off saves Sox
Ottavino blows lead in ninth
A little contact goes a long way.
The 2021 Red Sox are learning that important lesson as they continue to push forward without a handful of key contributors who are on the COVID-19 related injury list.
Saturday, the Sox had three sacrifice bunts in a game for the first time since 1993 as they pieced together an unusual 4-3 win over the Cleveland Indians.
They used one of the bunts to set up a rally in the seventh, when a bunt and groundout pushed a runner into scoring position and forced the Indians to pitch around Kyle Schwarber, who drew a walk to bring up Rafael Devers. Devers then hammered his 33rd homer of the year to temporarily put the Sox ahead, 3-0. But Adam Ottavino coughed up three runs in the ninth and forced the Sox offense to get back to work.
Another sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the ninth pushed a man into scoring position, then the Indians walked Devers and J.D. Martinez to get to Alex Verdugo, who hit a line drive to the right-field wall for the walkoff win.
With a Yankees loss, the Sox moved to just half-agame back of the Yanks for the rights to host the American League Wild Card Game. They’re four games up on the A’s for the second wild-card spot.
“We’re playing a different brand of baseball, which is great,” manager Alex Cora said. “I don’t mind it. We’re bunting. We’re taking pitches. We’re keeping the line moving. We’re doing everything to maximize our lineup. We know we bunch all those guys on top of the lineup. Jonathan Arauz and Jack Lopez, they’re gonna do their part. Today they did again. Three sac bunts, a walk, they play great defense. It’s not about names. It’s about a team, right? Sometimes the roster is gonna be different, right? Certain days. It’s been different four days. It just happens that we started playing good baseball.”
It all started with a leadoff single by Christian Vazquez with the game tied 0-0 in the seventh. Lopez, in the big leagues for the first time after almost 900 minorleague games, dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to the right side, allowing Vazquez to get to second. Arauz made some simple contact to move Vazquez to third with two outs.
With Schwarber at the plate and first base open, it was the obvious move to pitch around the red-hot Schwarber, who drew a walk and brought Devers to the plate.
Schwarber has been fantastic at controlling the strike zone and it was no exception against Blake Parker, who wanted nothing to do with him. Schwarber now has 16 walks to just 18 strikeouts since joining the Red Sox.
Up next, Devers worked a full count against Parker and then got a fastball down the middle that he pummeled for a three-run shot.
With 33 homers, Devers set a new career high. He also hit the 100 RBI total for the second time in his career. With a month left, he’s on pace to blow by his previous career highs of 32 homers and 115 RBI in 2019.
The Sox also executed a sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning, when Arauz dropped a perfect bunt down the third-base line to advance Vazquez to third and Lopez to second with only one out. But Schwarber popped out to first and Devers grounded out to fumble the opportunity.
They got it back in the seventh and didn’t miss.
It’s been rare for Cora-led teams to give away outs with a sacrifice bunt, but with so many players missing and the Sox among the worst teams in baseball at making contact, Cora has changed his approach. His team last bunted twice in a 10-4 loss to the Angels at the end of the 2019 season. But the Sox hadn’t successfully had three sacrifice hits in a game since Butch Hobson was managing.
“We have a lot of guys that are down right now,” Verdugo said. “On the COVID-IL, things like that. But the guys coming up filling their spots, or the guys in the bullpen we have, have been stepping up.
Our starters have been stepping up. Seems like everybody is stepping up. Everybody is playing ball, competing, not trying to get too down ourselves.
“We could’ve easily folded and been like, ‘Oh, we don’t have our guys, we don’t have our bullpen here, we don’t have this.’ But instead we compete, end up splitting the series with the Rays and taking the first two here. It’s big.”
Tanner Houck threw another gem for the Sox, throwing five shutout innings with seven strikeouts and just three hits allowed, but Cora pulled him after just 68 pitches. Lefty Austin Davis put three runners on base behind him and Victor Robles had to clean it up to escape the sixth inning.
Phillips Valdez was brilliant in the seventh and eighth, but Ottavino struggled in the ninth.
Jose Ramirez hit a leadoff single and Bobby Bradley doubled him home, then Ottavino got two outs before Franmil Reyes hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
Ottavino is 3-for-4 in save chances since closer Matt Barnes went to the COVID19 related injury list.
The Indians intentionally walked Martinez to set up a left-on-left matchup of Alex Young vs. Verdugo, but Verdugo got a juicy sinker down the middle and smoked it to drive in the game-winning run.
The Sox have won four in a row and have one more against the Indians on Sunday before a three-game stretch against the Rays.