All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 14-10 win over the Mariners, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Not Wright's night: In his first three starts, totaling almost 21 innings, Steven Wright had allowed just one run. On Friday night, he had three runs by the fourth batter. The Mariners got him for four in the first, two more in the second and another four before he could get out of the fourth. When he left, the Sox trailed 10-5. What did he think the odds were that he wouldn't get saddled with the loss? "Slim and none,'' said Wright. "I'm going to go but a lottery ticket now, because that never happens.'' Knuckleballs are notoriously fickle pitches -- when the pitch moves and dips, it can be almost unhittable, as it was last weekend in Seattle when Wright allowed just five hits in seven innings. But Wright never had a good feel for the pitch Friday. "It was just one of those days that when I did throw it for strikes, it just wasn't moving that much,'' Wright said. "I wasn't able to put two or three good pitches together. They hit a lot of mistakes.'' Alex Cora tried to show some patience and when Wright retired the Mariners in order in the third, it appeared as though he might salvage the night. But then the Mariners resumed smacking him around in the fourth and that was that. "He's been great for us,'' said Cora of Wright. "One bad outing doesn't mean that he's regressing. It happens.''
Johnson helped save the night: The Red Sox didn't want to be into their bullpen in the fourth inning but were forced to turn to their relievers. Lefty Brian Johnson got two quick outs to finish the inning, then gave the Sox two more scoreless frames to help stabilize the game and buy the Red Sox time to begin mounting their comeback. "It felt, the whole night, that it was going to be a big night offensively (for us),'' said Cora. "It was just a matter of stopping them and getting us back into the dugout so we could keep swinging the bats. BJ was great -- fastballs up, breaking ball expanding (the zone), great tempo, too. It was awesome.'' Since May 14, just over a month ago, Johnson is unscored upon in eight of his last 11 outings.
Sox mastering the art of the comeback: Friday's night triumphant comeback was the second time this season the Red Sox had erased leads of five runs. They did so April 8 against Tampa Bay, also. "We got to their bullpen early, or early enough,'' said Cora of his team knocking out Mariners' starter Wade LeBlanc, who had limited the Sox to just two hits last Saturday night in Seattle. "We had good at-bats, put the ball in play and it was just an outstanding offensive night for us.'' Indeed, the 20 hits were a season high and the 14 runs scored tied a season high. The Sox had only one run inning (the fourth) in which they went down 1-2-3 and every member of the starting lineup had at least one hit with six different players collecting multiple hits and eight different players knocked in at least one run.
TURNING POINT
Trailing 10-6 in the sixth, a booming two-run homer into the center field bleachers by J.D. Martinez pulled the Sox to with two and suggested that a comeback was possible. Indeed, an inning later, the Red Sox took the lead for good.
https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1010339771963641856
TWO UP
Rafael Devers: Devers is on a definite upswing at the plate, and that continued Friday with base hits in each of his last three at-bats, with two RBI
Mitch Moreland: Moreland enjoyed a three-hit night, including a triple to the triangle in the sixth, his third three-base hit of the season.
ONE DOWN
Blake Swihart: Filling in as the DH for the night, Swihart was just 1-for-5, though his seventh-inning single did produce a run.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"That's the beauty of baseball -- two guys (starting pitchers) who went at it last week, only one run (allowed between them) and then, boom ... that happened in the first inning (with nine runs between the teams).''
— Alex Cora
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Almost half of the Red Sox' 51 wins -- 21 of them -- have been comeback victories.
- The last MLB team to win a game in which the starting pitcher allowed 10 or more runs was Oakland, which did so July 20, 2009, against Minnesota.
- Moreland has as many triples in 60 games this season as he did in 922 career games before this season.
- Moreland has six RBI in his last seven games.
- Martinez has reached base in 27-straight home games.
- The five RBI was a season-high for Martinez.
- Devers has 11 RBI in his last 12 games.