McAdam: Just one win, but it felt like more for the Red Sox

HOUSTON -- Let's recap the (end of the) week that wasn't for the Red Sox, shall we?

On Friday, they placed their best player, Mookie Betts, on the disabled list with a lingering abdominal injury that may or may not sideline him for longer than the standard 10-day stay on the disabled list.

On Saturday morning, Dustin Pedroia joined him on the DL, having experienced considerable discomfort in his surgically repaired left knee, and having been unavailable in the previous two games.

So, just when the Red Sox were celebrating the versatility brought to them by the return of Pedroia, they found themselves down two everyday players, and stripped of the flexibility they thought they had just gained.

In the meantime, they dropped the first two games of their big showdown series with the Houston Astros. In the first game, they could muster just two runs against the least imposing starter in the Astros' rotation. In the second one, their ace, Chris Sale, put them down two runs in the very first inning, then saw his stretch of unsuccessful starts against Houston get extended.

All of which reinforced the growing suspicion that their league-leading win total was built on the backs of a collection of American League lesser lights, some of whom are making no pretense about trying to win this year, and highlighted the problems have had against a team like the Astros, all the while calling attention to the separation that exists between the world champs and themselves.

So, yes, the Red Sox' 5-4 comeback victory over Houston Saturday night was significant. It's absurd to suggest that, in a 162-game season, one game on the first weekend of June was a must-win. More than a hundred games remain to be played and reading too much into one outcome is ill-advised.

But let's go ahead and call the victory the Red Sox posted at Minute Maid Park very much ... welcome.

Welcome, because it came in a game started by Justin Verlander, who has merely been the best pitcher in the American League in the first two-plus months of the season. In his previous six starts before Saturday had given up a grand total of four runs, never allowing more than a single earned run in any one of them.

The Sox didn't exactly mash against Verlander, but they did score twice in six innings against him and made him work, pushing him to 110 pitches through six innings. And they have rattled him just a bit when, after a one-out walk by Xander Bogaerts in the sixth, Bogaerts swiped second, from where he scored on a single by J.D. Martinez.

"We had a good game plan,'' said Alex Cora, "and we executed. He was still outstanding, but he had to grind it out and we got him out of the game.''

They trailed when Verlander and their own starter, David Price, left after six -- but not for long.

Cora had shown remarkable prescience when he said on Thursday: "Six innings, I'll take our chances with their bullpen. For them to get nine outs, I'll take my chances.''

And indeed, the Sox took full advantage of the one area in which the Astros may be vulnerable: late-inning relief. In the span of three hitters, the Sox undid a one-run deficit and turned it into a two-run lead with a solo homer from Christian Vazquez, a walk to Jackie Bradley Jr. and a two-run, second-deck blast from Andrew Benintendi.

That outburst came after the Red Sox had led for a whole inning and a half for the entire series, and gave the Sox an opportunity to gain a split of the four-game series with a win Sunday night.

Must-win? No

Huge win? Absolutely.

"Anytime you win, you're going to feel better about what's going on,'' said Brock Holt, whose principal contribution to the victory came when he predicted Benintendi's homer in the dugout. "I think we know that we're a good team. We obviously know that they're a good team. They've played well against us. It's one of those things -- they've kind of had the upper hand. Obviously, it's good to get this one.''

Maybe it doesn't change the narrative in a big way. As the defending champions, the Astros get the benefit of the doubt, and until the Red Sox prove they can beat them in October, they'll be regarded as the underdogs, regardless of their gaudy win total.

But having lost eight of the previous 10 meetings with the Astros, it was hard not to think that the Red Sox needed this one as much as any win they've had this season.