Homerhappy Sox cap off sweep
Power display helps Cora earn his 250th victory as manager
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the eighth, J.D. Martinez stepped to the plate in front of a Buffalo crowd that leaned heavily in the Red Sox’s favor.
The Sox had seen part of their four-run lead erased in the sixth when starter Garrett Richards relinquished two homers, cutting their lead to just 5-4.
With two outs in the inning, Martinez belted a 2-2 Jordan Romano fastball over the wall in right. Hunter Renfroe made it back-to-back homers after he roped his solo shot beyond the wall in center.
Renfroe pumped his fist as he looked before reaching first base while looking toward his teammates in the first base dugout, stamping a 7-4 victory, and a series win for the Sox in which they hit 11 homers.
The Red Sox stacked the deck with righties Wednesday evening. Up against Blue Jays starter Robbie Ray, who has carved up lefties to the tune of a .165 batting average this season, manager Alex Cora’s lineup featured just one lefty in Rafael Devers.
After two scoreless frames, Kiké Hernández popped Ray for a two-run shot. It marked a team-high nine homers in 25 games for Hernández. In the top of the fourth, Rafael Devers stroked his 24th homer of the season to left-center.
Following a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. solo shot off Sox starter Garrett Richards, Michael Chavis made it 4-1 with a solo homer of his own in the fifth. Christian Vázquez singled on a ball up the middle in the sixth, bringing home J.D. Martinez to stretch the Sox lead to 5-1.
But that was short-lived. Richards was cruising on the mound for the Sox, giving the Blue Jays a heavy dose of sliders, coupled with his changeup, to keep Toronto hitters off-balance. It worked for the most part, as Richards induced a ton of weak contact with his only blemish coming on the Guerrero homer.
Cora sent Richards back out for the sixth inning and it appeared as if he would add another scoreless frame to his name. The Jays’ Marcus Semien grounded out sharply to Devers at third, who made a nice play going to his left. Richards then negotiated yet another groundout, this time from Bo Bichette. But the bottom fell out after Richards walked Guerrero with two outs in the inning. George Springer tagged Richards for a two-run shot to right-center, shrinking the Sox lead to 5-3. Sox pitching coach Dave Bush then came out for a mound visit and Richards responded by getting
Teoscar Hernandez down in the count, 0-2. But on the third pitch of the at-bat, Richards left an 86 mile-perhour slider over the heart of the plate that Hernandez pummeled for a solo shot.
Another rehab start for Sale: Chris Sale will make his next rehab start Sunday at Portland.
The lefthander tossed 3⅔ hitless innings for the Sea Dogs Tuesday, striking out six and walking a batter. Overall, the reports that Cora got on Sale were very encouraging.
“He was a little bit off mechanically early on,” Cora said. “And that’s part of the progression right now, but he settled down. Everybody is very happy with the way that the outing went.”
Sale threw 49 pitches and 34 for strikes, topping out at 98 miles per hour.