Verdugo delivers again as Red Sox beat Jays 6-5
'It was a good day for the kids'
He did it again.
For the third time this season Alex Verdugo sent the Fenway Faithful home happy, crushing a walk-off solo home run into the Red Sox bullpen to lead off the bottom of the ninth and cap a wild 6-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
It was his second walk-off hit in three days, and with six walk-off RBI as a member of the Red Sox he now stands second only to David Ortiz (17) in club history since the 2000 season.
Hearing him speak in the Red Sox clubhouse afterwards, you can tell it’s not a fluke.
“I live for it, man. I live for that moment,” Verdugo said. “You don’t go up there thinking about failure, you go up there thinking I have a chance to help out the team to win a ballgame and I thrive for that moment.”
Verdugo’s big home run was the final exclamation point on a statement win for the Red Sox, who turned the tables on a Blue Jays team that completely owned Boston a year ago.
Last year Toronto beat the Red Sox 16 out of 19 meetings, and the majority of those games were over before they even started. This time the Red Sox made sure to set a different tone, and for much of the night the young kids were the ones leading the way.
After falling behind 3-2 in the early innings, the Red Sox rallied to take the lead on sixth-inning home runs by Jarren Duran and rookie Enmanuel Valdez. Duran’s was a 434-foot solo shot to dead center field, which led off the inning and tied the game, and after slumping rookie Triston Casas drew a walk Valdez followed suit with a 427-foot bomb, the first of his big league career.
“It was a good day for the kids,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “They’re in a good spot.”
The big inning flipped the script after the Blue Jays initially looked as if they were prepared to dominate Boston once again. After the Red Sox took a quick 2-0 lead in the first thanks to doubles by Verdugo and Masataka Yoshida and then an RBI single by Justin Turner, the Blue Jays immediately pulled ahead on a three-run shot by Bo Bichette
(5 for 5) in the top of the second.
At that point starting pitcher Corey Kluber looked like he was in for a long day, but the veteran settled down and kept the Blue Jays off the board into the sixth.
Though it wound up being a solid outing, Kluber’s four walks was a concerning sign for a pitcher who is traditionally among the best in baseball at commanding his pitches. Last season Kluber was the best starting pitcher in the majors at avoiding walks, but this year he’s already issued 12 in 31.1 innings.
By comparison, last year Kluber only walked 21 batters in 164 innings.
Cora said afterwards Kluber suffered a cut on his finger but was able to battle through it, and he also offered praise for lefty Brennan Bernardino, who came on with one out in the sixth and quickly finished the inning despite coming on to pitch for the third straight day.
Chris Martin subsequently pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam for a scoreless seventh, but Josh Winckowski found himself first the beneficiary and then the victim of a bizarre series of defensive plays at shortstop by Kiké Hernández, who made an excellent stop and throw to start the eighth but followed with two throwing errors that allowed Toronto to tie the game at 5-5.
With Kenley Jansen unavailable due to back soreness Winckowski came back out for a clean ninth, and Cora said he would have pitched the 10th before Verdugo finished things off.
“He did a good job,” Cora said of Winckowski. “He threw strikes, they put some good at bats and we didn’t make plays, but then he made pitches and gave us a chance to win.”
With the win Boston improves to 16-14 and jumps New York in the AL East standings. Tanner Houck (3-1, 4.50 ERA) will get the ball for the Red Sox on Tuesday against Yusei Kikuchi (4-0, 3.00), with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m.