McAdam: For a change, strong bats enough to overcome poor starting effort

Back in July, with Chris Sale already down for the season and Eduardo Rodriguez unavailable -- and subsequently, sidelined for the remainder of the year, too -- it was patently obvious that the Red Sox rotation was going to be problematic.

The Red Sox had only two established starters -- Nate Eovaldi and Martin Perez -- and the rest, well, would be made up as they went along.

The team's saving grace, it seemed then, was that the lineup was good enough to outhit their pitching deficiencies -- at least occasionally. It was easy to envision the Sox outlasting other teams and winning their share of slugfests, posting wins with big numbers: 8-5, 7-6.

They would win in spite of their pitching, not because of it. They would win because while the pitching was suspect, the offense would be good enough to overcome it -- at least once in a while. Do that often enough, and toss in a few well-pitched games from Eovaldi and Perez, and maybe the Sox could dream of playing .500 ball.

Tuesday night marked the halfway point of the season, however, and there have been very few games like the one the Sox won Tuesday night, 9-7 over the Toronto Blue Jays.

On this night, it didn't matter that the Red Sox trailed 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning. It didn't matter that they trailed 6-3 in the fifth inning.



It didn't matter because the Red Sox lineup was good enough to more than make up for the failings of the staff. And because, on this night anyway, as suspect as some of the Red Sox pitching was, the Blue Jays were worse.

So why haven't there been more games like? Why haven't the Red Sox covered up their multitude of pitching sins more often, the way many expected?

"I can't understand why it hasn't happened more,'' acknowledged Ron Roenicke. "It's hard to figure out the offense some times. This year, offense is down (across the game). I'm looking through the league and I'm looking at some great hitters who aren't hitting.

"But yes, with our starting pitching and those guys being down, I thought we would have to score a lot of runs to win games. You score nine and certainly, you always figure on winning there. But I just thought we'd be more consistent, scoring 4-5-6 runs pretty much every night and that really hasn't happened that often.''

Halfway through their 60-game season, the Sox can't seem to get a core of their lineup hot at the same time. When J.D. Martinez hits, Rafael Devers doesn't. When Xander Bogaerts takes off, someone else sputters. Leadoff hitter Andrew Benintendi collected four hits in the first three weeks, then went on the IL with a rib injury.

Seldom have the Sox been firing on all cylinders, making it difficult -- if not impossible -- to string together big innings. But Tuesday night, it happened. And it was very much needed.

Rookie Kyle Hart again got himself and his teammates in trouble early, allowing the Jays to grab a 4-0 lead in the first inning. The Sox responded with a run in the second, then two more in the fourth. But then Hart gave up two more in the bottom of the fourth and it appeared as though this game would never be within the Sox' reach.

That doubly frustrated Hart. Not only did it extend to three straight the number of games he's allowed the opposition to score first and take an early sizable lead, but it also served as a reminder that even a slightly better first inning would have presented the Sox with a smaller hill to climb.

"The way these guys swing the bats,'' he said, "(I need to just) keep it right there for them because they are going to put runs on the board and I know it's tougher to do that when you're fighting from behind.''

Then, in the sixth, everything clicked at once. The Sox sent 10 men to the plate and scored six times, finally overtaking the Blue Jays with a three-run standup triple from Rafael Devers.

From there, the bullpen took over, allowing just one run over the final 5.1 innings.

For once, the formula the Sox had in mind for nights like actually worked.

"It was a good win for us,'' said Mitch Moreland. "It was kind of back-and-forth all the way through it, but we were able to have that big inning to ice it. We just constantly fought back, put together good at-bats, one inning after another, trying to find a way to score a run here and there, get guys on base until we got that big hit. It's kind of something we've been missing through the year.

"I think this game was good for us. It's something we've been trying to do all year and haven't been able to do it, and tonight we were able to.''