All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 7-6 win over the Blue Jays, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Moreland delivers again: As bad as the first two weeks have gone for the Red Sox, they'd be so much worse off if not for the clutch hitting of Mitch Moreland. Thursday night's comeback win was a case in point: he homered in the seventh to tie the game at 5-5, and then in the ninth, after the Jays had re-taken a one-run lead, crushed a run-scoring double to straightaway center, setting up the walk-off win. The Sox have just four wins in their first 13 games and Moreland has either put the Sox ahead or tied the game in each one of them. He has six game-tying or go-ahead extra-base hits this season, including five in the sixth inning or later and two in the ninth. He leads the team in virtually every offensive category, from homers to RBI to extra-base hits to slugging percentage. Four of his five homers have either tied the game or put the Sox ahead and four of the five have come in the seventh inning or later. "I'm up there trying to fight,'' shrugged Moreland.
Eovaldi's struggles continue: Once more, the Red Sox won despite their starting pitching, not because of it. Two problems re-surfaced that have dogged Eovaldi in all three of his starts this season: walks and homers. He issued four walks, giving him 10 in just 15 innings this season. Compare that to a year ago when Eovaldi often displayed pinpoint control, averaging just 1.6 walks per nine innings. This year, he's averaging six walks per nine innings. The long ball was an issue, too, with Eovaldi surrendering two homers in the third inning. He's now given up six homers this year in 15 innings, or double the amount he allowed in 54 innings with the Red Sox this season. "Those have been the two frustrating things,'' agreed Eovaldi. "I'm just falling behind to the hitters and trying to be too perfect when I'm behind in the count. The walks definitely hurt you and I have to do a better job not allowing them.'' Eovaldi said his cutter was "a little off'' in the first three innings. "That's usually my go-to pitch,'' he said, "and I couldn't throw it for a strike.''
Defense helps out: The Red Sox have had their share of sloppy play this season, but have cleaned things up of late. Thursday marked the team's fourth straight game without an error, after committing nine in their first nine games. Equally as important was the fact that the team turned some big plays to help Nathan Eovaldi out of some jams. While the Jays raced out to a 5-3 lead through the first four and a half innings, it could have been worse, given the number of baserunners that Eovaldi allowed. But the Sox got an inning-ending double play in the first, another in the second and two more to end the fourth and fifth, too. In the first three, Dustin Pedroia served as either the pivot man or started the double play, proving how valuable he can be in the middle of the Red Sox infield. On the two double plays that found him in the middle, Pedroia hung in nicely both times on takeout slides from Toronto baserunners, showing a confidence in his left knee to absorb some contact as he made the turn to first base.
SECOND GUESS:
The Red Sox seemed to have Toronto starter Aaron Sanchez on the ropes in the fifth inning. Sanchez had given up a single, a walk and two wild pitches, bringing the Sox back to within a run at 5-4. But when Dustin Pedroia hit a fly ball to shallow center with Rafael Devers on third, third base coach Carlos Febles inexplicably sent Devers home, where he was out by 12-15 feet, ending the inning.
TWO UP
Rafael Devers: Devers contributed two big at-bats -- he doubled home a run as part of the Red Sox' three-run third, then, in the ninth, hit a chopper over a drawn-in infield to score the winning run.
Dustin Pedroia: Pedroia knocked in his first run of the season with an opposite-field single in the third, and found himself in the middle of three double plays on the pivot at second.
ONE DOWN
Ryan Brasier: Brasier picked the wrong time to allow his first run of the year -- a solo homer to Freddy Galvis that handed the lead back to Toronto after the Sox had rallied the inning before to tie the game.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I looked up there and I was like, 'They're not supposed to have these, are they?' I figured I would try to hit it or something.'' Mitch Moreland, on the mysterious drone that hovered above Fenway during the team's ninth-inning rally.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- At 22 years, 169 days old, Devers became the youngest Red Sox player to have a game-winning hit since Xander Bogaerts (21 years, 240 days) on May 29, 2014.
- Pedroia's RBI was his first since Sept. 29, 2017.
- Andrew Benintendi has reached base safely in 27 of his 29 games in the leadoff spot.
- JD Martinez's double, measured at 111.6 mph, had his hardest-hit ball of the season.
- Marked the first series of the year the Red Sox didn't lose.