McAdam: Red Sox show themselves capable of big comebacks

Four batters in, they were behind 3-0. Two batters later, it grew to 4-0. And even after they responded with a five-spot of their own in the bottom of the first, the Red Sox weren't out of the woods.

Indeed, it would soon got worse. The Seattle Mariners bashed Steven Wright around for two more runs in the second, and then piled on some more in the fourth with four more runs.

By then, they weren't just looking at a steep hill. It was more like a treacherous mountain by the middle of the fourth: Seattle 10, Red Sox 5.

And yet, hope stirred in the Red Sox dugout.

"When we were down by five,'' said J.D. Martinez, "it didn't feel like it. It felt like we were still in it.''

Were he not so modest, Martinez might have added his presence alone was enough to fill the Red Sox with optimism. In the first inning, he had already belted a double to produce the first Red Sox run of the night, and again in the second, he doubled again.

In the fifth, he lined a pea to right that was caught by Mitch Haniger, but still the ball rocketed off his bat. Turns out, that was merely a hint at the coming attractions. In the sixth, he drove a booming shot into the center field bleachers and the Red Sox comeback was well underway.

The Red Sox' collective faith was, as it turned out, well-founded. Five runs in the first? There was more where that came from - plenty more, as the Sox pounded out 20 hits and, once the Mariners had had their fun against Wright, the Sox hung up nine unanswered runs on the Seattle staff.

It may well be that the seeds of this comeback -- the second time this season that the Sox had erased a five-run deficit this season -- were planted halfway across the country, in Minneapolis, on Thursday afternoon. After being limited to just three runs in the first 18 innings of their series with the Twins -- making it eight times in the span of 13 games that the Sox failed to score more than two runs -- the Sox busted out in their road trip finale, tallying nine runs in a blowout win.

"Just bouncing back the way we did in the first inning was probably the biggest thing,'' said Mitch Moreland, who had three hits. "Coming back out and getting back into the ballgame was big for us. But yeah, we finished the game hot (Thursday) and it rolled over into today. Hopefully, we can ride that wave a little bit.''

Alex Cora concurred, noting that the Sox had an energy and a purpose to them in the dugout, a feeling that had been missing in the first two games in Minnesota when the Sox couldn't seem to summon a big hit when they needed it, stranding baserunners at a furious pace.

"You create your own energy,'' said Cora, "and it's hard to create energy when you're not swinging the bats. From the get-go, I know (Dustin Pedroia) was very loud, even before the game.''

It's said that momentum in baseball is the next day's starting pitcher, but this was a case of the Red Sox having taken a smarter approach at the plate Thursday and figuring some things out. If they could manage nine runs and 16 hits at spacious Target Field, why couldn't they do the same on an early summer night, with the ball traveling well, at Fenway?

A run in the fifth. Three more in the sixth, with the sell-out crowd drawn into the comeback bid. And, finally, five in the eighth to pull away.

"It would be easy to give up in that situation,'' said Andrew Benintendi of the good-sized ditch the Sox had dug for themselves by the fourth, "and just sort of coast through the game. But we kept fighting and putting good at-bats together, all throughout the lineup. It was a good win.''

Part of the success came from a different approach against starter Wade LeBlanc, whom the Sox made look the second coming of Tom Glavine last week at Safeco Field when his slow stuff limited them to two hits in 7.2 innings. The plan was to attack earlier in the count, which the Sox did right from the first inning: by the time the journeyman lefty had thrown 16 pitches in the first inning, the Sox had themselves four runs.

But the hits didn't stop coming after LeBlanc was chased in the fifth. In fact, they intensified, and suddenly that early deficit didn't prove so overwhelming.

"That's some fight,'' concluded Moreland approvingly.

"That just shows the relentlessness of this team,'' said Steven Wright, with not a little gratitude after being taken off the hook.