McAdam: Finally, a one-sided win for the Red Sox

You can count the 2019 wins on two hands so far, and because there have been so (relatively) few of them, they're fairly easy to recall.

Until Wednesday night, seven of the nine victories have been decided by one or two runs, including one (Sunday) in extra innings. Over the weekend, when they swept the Tampa Bay Rays, two of the wins came in the team's final inning and a third was determined in the eighth.

That's how most of them had been. Late, close and tight.

That path might be good for a team in September as it readies for the postseason, but for the grind of a long regular season, some one-sided, never-break-a-sweat win here or there can relax a team.



On Tuesday, Alex Cora had lamented the Red Sox hadn't had that luxury, a game in which the issue was decided early and the drama was absent.

Perhaps Wednesday doesn't qualify either, since the Sox had, for most of the night, rather modest leads: a two-run edge for three innings; a four-run lead for a half-inning; and a three-run lead until the eighth. That's when the combination of a patient Red Sox lineup and an erratic Tigers bullpen conspired to give the Red Sox a seven-run inning to open things nice and wide for an 11-4 win.

It wasn't in the bag from, say, the second inning or anything. But since they didn't have to sweat out the last few innings and Cora got a chance to get a couple of regulars off their feet in the top of the ninth, the Sox gladly took it.

"I feel like we haven't had a night like that this season,'' said J.D. Martinez.

As previously documented, it wasn't Martinez's imagination. Every night had been a grind, which can take a toll of its own on a team.

Part of the issue stemmed from the brutal 11-game, season-opening road trip in which the Sox often found themselves on the business end of routs when their starting pitchers failed miserably in keeping them in games.

Of late, an inconsistent run by the offense led to games being closer than they should, or, as was the case in Tuesday's nightcap, a frustrating loss in which the Sox marooned 13 baserunners.

They were better Wednesday. When Martinez led off the second with a single, the Sox managed to get him in and when Tigers starter Tyson Ross committed the unpardonable sin of issuing a walk with two outs and the bases empty. The Sox made sure that hitter -- Michael Chavis -- scored, too.

In the fifth, it was more of the same. With one out, the first four hitters in the Red Sox order reached and two scored.

From then, it was a cruise.

"It feels great,'' said Cora. "The line has been moving since Tampa, offensively. We're talking more, we're controlling the zone. It's just a matter of getting that big hit. Today, we grinded. We put up good at-bats.''

"It felt great,'' said Mookie Betts of a night in which the Sox could afford to breathe a bit. "Getting the win is the most important thing. We know what we're capable of. It's just a matter of doing it. This is maybe the first time we've done it this year. Hopefully, (it's) the first of many.

"It's very important (to have a few easy ones). Sometimes you just want to sit back and chill, kind of coast.''

Cora noted that the Big Three in the lineup -- Martinez, Betts and Andrew Benintendi -- haven't, until recently, all been hot at the same time. But Wednesday night, they combined to get on base eight times and scored five runs collectively.

It seemed like it was only a matter of time before a night like this happened. And yet, it somehow took 25 games.

"We were kind of joking about it today in the cage,'' said Martinez. "Last year, it felt like we had a lot like these and this is the first one (this year). So, it's good.''

A year ago, the Red Sox led all of baseball in virtually every significant offensive category except homers: batting average, runs scored, OPS, slugging percentage, extra-base hits.

But too often, it's been a struggle to outscore the opposition this season. If Wednesday night represented the start of an offensive awakening, the Red Sox will surely welcome more of it.