The Red Sox arrived in Atlanta on their first five-game losing streak of the season, fresh off getting swept in Milwaukee, where the Brewers had walked them off in each of the last two games.
On Friday night, Boston bounced back with a 5-1 come-from-behind win and one of their most complete, high-caliber performances in weeks.
The outlook wasn’t bright early on. This beleaguered Boston ballclub ran the whole gamut of their issues in the opening frame, wasting a pair of base runners – Rafael Devers singled and Wilyer Abreu walked – in the top of the first, and gifting the Braves a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning. They fell behind on an RBI single by Matt Olson and an error, which was charged to right-fielder Wilyer Abreu rather than rookie catcher Carlos Narváez, who couldn’t keep the throw in his glove.
It looked like the makings of yet another frustrating night of Red Sox baseball. They entered Friday with the most errors in the American League (46), one shy of the Colorado Rockies, and leading Major League Baseball in runners left on base and strikeouts with men in scoring position.
Grant Holmes may have pitched a complete game, if not for Abraham Toro. The utility man had three hits, scored Boston’s first run, and plated an additional run with a wall-ball RBI double that knocked the Braves starter out of the game after 5.2 innings. Toro’s teammates collectively had three hits against Holmes.
Toro has quietly been one of the most productive bats during the club’s prolonged offensive slump. Since getting called up to take Triston Casas’ spot at the start of the month, he’s hit .294 with a .843 OPS. Over eight games dating back to last Friday, he’s 10 for 25 (.400) with three doubles and two home runs.
With Toro as the catalyst, the Red Sox slowly gathered steam. In the fourth, they finally got what they’ve been sorely missing from one of their veteran leaders. Trevor Story had just one extra-base hit off a non-position player and 42 strikeouts in his last 31 games when he came to the plate with two outs and Toro on with his second hit. After a drought of 57 at-bats, Story turned the first pitch he saw into a 431-foot, 109 mph homer and a 2-1 Boston lead.
“It felt great,” Story told the AppleTV+ broadcast of the team’s first win since last Saturday. “Had the off-day yesterday, nice to reset a little bit, kind of get our bearings.”
As for his home run, after just one extra-base hit off a non-position player in his last 31 games?
“It felt amazing,” Story said.
Toro came through with his glove, too. Taking over for Garrett Whitlock with two on and two out in the seventh, Brennan Bernardino found himself in the middle of what initially looked like a repeat of the team’s first-inning defensive debacle. Matt Olson ground a 3-2 pitch up the middle, where Story threw it on a hop to first, where Toro made a diving catch and threw wide of home, where a run scored. Olson was initially ruled safe, as it appeared Toro’s foot had already left the bag when the ball entered his glove, but the Red Sox successfully changed, erasing the run and any further threat.
For a team which has had some truly terrible luck, it was a well-deserved break.
“That was incredible,” Story raved. “I did the first half but he did the hardest part, I think, in staying on the base, making the pick on an in-between hop, and he doesn’t play over there much.”
Kristian Campbell also had a well-deserved night at the plate in his first career game at his hometown ballpark. In front of dozens of friends and family, the rookie went 2 for 4.
There was another multi-hit performance from Rafael Devers, who went 2 for 4, drove in a pair of runs in the ninth, and added to his American League-leading walk total with his 46th free pass of the season. The last Sox player to walk as many times in his first 59 games of the season was Kevin Youkilis in 2010.
It’s been a masterful month of May-hem for Devers: he’s hit .370 with a .484 on-base percentage and .630 slugging percentage in 27 games.
“We talk about it all the time,” Story said of Devers. “Feels like he’s in total command in the box. In my opinion, the best left-handed hitter in the game, and just so pumped he’s on our team, man. He sets the tone.”
For the last several weeks, manager Alex Cora has spoken about the rotation needing to pitch deeper in games. Yet Giolito was just the latest in a long line of early exit. Friday was the eighth time a Sox starter exited before completing the fifth inning, with a pitch count under 90 and no more than two runs allowed. It was the seventh such start since May 8, and the sixth since May 19.
Giolito was at 85 pitches after 4.2 innings of one-run ball when Cora came out to the mound. Yet given who was on-deck to hit, the early hook made sense; Olson entered the contest 7 for 10 with four career home runs against Giolito.
Justin Wilson, Whitlock, Bernardino, Greg Weissert and Aroldis Chapman pitched the rest of the way. The Red Sox had a four-run lead when Cora sent his closer to the mound. Chapman slammed the door with a 1-2-3 inning.
The Red Sox are 28-31. Game 2 is a 4:10 p.m. on Saturday.
