Last month, the Blue Jays came to Fenway and clubbed homers left and right, totaling 13 in the final two games. This week, the Red Sox went to Buffalo and nearly matched them.
After hitting six homers in the opener of the rain-shortened series on Monday, the Sox added five more Wednesday night to pound the Blue Jays, 7-4.
The Sox got long balls from Kike Hernandez Rafael Devers, Michael Chavis, J.D. Martinez and Hunter Renfroe to pace their nine-hit attack. All but one of the Sox' hits went for extra bases.
Garrett Richards was superb through the first five innings before allowing back-to-back homers in the sixth to earn his second straight win.
WHO: Red Sox (57-38) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (48-43)
WHEN: 7:07 p.m.
WHERE: Sahlen Field, Buffalo
SERIES TO DATE: BOS 1-0
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: BOS 6-4
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Garrett Richards (5-4, 4.91) vs. LHP Robbie Ray (8-4, 2.93)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM 93.7
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Santana LF
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Martinez DH
Renfroe RF
Vazquez C
Dalbec 1B
Chavis 2B
BLUE JAYS
Semien 2B
Bichette SS
Guerrero Jr. DH
Springer CF
Hernandez LF
Grichuk RF
Gurriel Jr. 1B
Biggio 3B
Jansen C
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: Hunter Renfroe goes back-to-back behind Martinez and the Sox have five homers tonight and 11 in the two-game series.
T8: Huge insurance run comes on an opposite-field solo shot for J.D. Martinez, No. 20 for the season.
B7: Whitlock gets out of a jam, stranding the potential tying run in scoring position.
B7: Danny Santana appears to have re-injured his left quad while chasing a double by Danny Jansen, and comes out of the game. He's played by Alex Verdugo.
B6: Richards hits a wall -- and fast. A two-run shot by George Springer is quickly followed by a solo blast from Teoscar Hernandez and suddenly, that's it. Garrett Whitlock on.
B5: This is easily the best start for Richards in a couple of months. He's allowed one run on two hits through six innings and has five strikeouts.
B4: Frightening power from Vladdy Guerrero Jr., who drives a cutter oppo - a massive clout for the first run of the night for the Jays.
T4: Rafael Devers clubs a slider out to left-center for No. 24. That's two homers tonight for the Sox and eight in 13 innings in this series.
T3: Kike Hernandez, Home Run Hitter. Hernandez gets on top of a fastball and hits a screaming liner that gets out quickly. That's nine homers in the last 25 games.
B2: As inconsistent as Michael Chavis has been the plate this season, he's played well at both first and second base. He makes a nice play on a high-chopper from Randal Grichuk.
B1: Strong first inning for Garrett Richards, who fans two around a chopper to second. Richards showed an impressive 12-6 curveball a few times.
WHAT's UP: At 57-38 (.600), the Red Sox are tied with the Astros for the AL’s second-best record....The Sox are 25-15 (.625) in their last 40 games, but just 3-6 in their last nine...Last night’s win followed back-to-back losses to finish their series at NYY...The Sox are one of two teams without a losing streak of longer than three games (also NYM). The Sox winning margin last night (+9, 13-4) is tied for their second-largest of the season...The Red Sox scored eight runs on three homers in the first inning last night...It was the first time in franchise history that the Red Sox have hit three or more homers in the first inning of a road game (source: Elias). The Sox became the first team in MLB history to score at least eight runs in the top of the first inning with all of them coming on home runs (source: STATS). Last night’s first inning marked the Sox’ first time hitting at least three homers in an inning this season; the last time came last Sept. 5 against Toronto with three homers in the second inning vs. TOR...The Sox scored 11 runs through the first two innings last night, their most through the first 2 innings since June 27, 2003 vs. the Marlins (16 runs; source: ESPN Stats & Info).....The Sox set a season high with 10 extra-base hits last night and matched a season high with six homers...They also hit six homers on April 11 at BAL, resulting in 14-9 win....The Red Sox rank in the top five in the majors in runs scored (third, 483), AVG (fifth, .257), SLG (third, .441), OPS (third, .763), doubles (first, 203), and XBH (first, 336). The Sox have hit four or more homers in a game an MLB-best nine times. The Red Sox have hit 20 three-run homers, most in the AL and tied with the Giants for most in the majors. The Sox own MLB’s best records when scoring four or more runs (50-7, .877) and five or more runs (43-4, .915)...Yesterday began a stretch in which the Red Sox and Blue Jays are scheduled to play each other seven times in 11 days from July 19-29......After the current three-game series in Buffalo, the clubs will play a four-game series in Boston from July 26-29.....The Sox are 11-9 against the Blue Jays since the start of 2020, including 6-4 this season..Twelve of the last 20 meetings have been decided by one or two runs.....In their last 21 games, Red Sox starters have posted a 3.62 ERA ,,,,,Red Sox starters have thrown five or more innings 73 times, tied for 3rd-most in the majors (OAK-84, CWS-74, LAD-73)...The Sox are 48-25 (.658) in those games. ...The Red Sox have the AL’s best road record (29-19, .604)...They have a 3.83 ERA on the road (seventh in MLB) and a 4.40 ERA at home (24th). The Red Sox are 28-19 (.596) at home, the fourth-best record in the AL (11th-best in MLB)...They are 13-6 (.684) at home since Fenway opened to full capacity on May 29...: Jarren Duran hit his first major league homer Monday night, a two-run shot in the first inning. On Friday at Yankee Stadium, Duran became the first Red Sox player to record a base hit on the first pitch of his first MLB plate appearance since 2010, when Daniel Nava and Yamaico Navarro both did so. ....Among rookies with 20 or more innings pitched this season, Garrett Whitlock owns the lowest ERA (1.38)...He has a 0.54 ERA and .183 opponent AVG in his last 10 outings (16.2 IP, 1 ER, 21 SO, 4 BB). Whitlock has made 16 scoreless appearances of more than an inning, the most in MLB...Prior to Whitlock, the last Red Sox pitcher with at least 16 scoreless appearances of more than an inning in a season was Burke Badenhop in 2014 (16)...The last Sox pitcher with 17 or more in a season was Derek Lowe in 2000 (17)....Sox relievers rank fourth in the AL and ninth in the majors in ERA (3.67)...Their nine active relievers have a combined 2.86 ERA for Boston this season....Josh Taylor has allowed no runs in 27 of his last 28 outings, dating back to April 30.... Garrett Richards snapped a career-high-tying eight-start winless streak with his first win since May 19....Richards has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last two starts after allowing four or more runs in a career-high four straight starts....Richards hasn't allowed a homer in his last two starts after allowing six over his previous three starts and has thrown five or more innings in 12 of his last 14 starts....Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is 5-for-7 lifetime against Richards.....
NOTES:
* Chris Sale, who made his second rehab appearance Tuesday in Portland, came through the outing fine, according to Alex Cora. "He feels great,'' said Cora. "He's going through his Day 1 progression in Portland. If I'm not mistaken, he'll be back on the mound on his regular rest, which is Sunday. Everybody's excited with what we saw (Tuesday); I'm happier with the way he reacted today. Hopefully, we keep progressing the way it should be and he'll join us when he's ready.'' It's likely that start will also come in Portland.
* With the trade deadline approaching, Cora has some thoughts on what the Sox could use. "I have my feeling, but they change on a daily basis,'' said Cora. "Having Jarren (Duran) and Tanner (Houck) here on a daily basis, and Chris (Sale) whenever he comes here, we're going to be in good shape. Every team has question marks, every team needs to add something to get better. I don't know how the market is going to move in the next week and a half. There's a lot of teams in the hunt. Our front office is going to do their homework. There's been questions about players. There's been names thrown around. Sometimes, it's not the huge move that helps you win the World Series. It's getting Steve Pearce and he becomes the hero. Good teams benefit from good baseball moves and I do believe that we're going to make some good baseball moves if Chaim (Bloom) feels like it and we're going to improve...I don't think you need a savior, to be honest with you. But something there's a few things where you have to get better.''
* Alex Verdugo was out of the lineup, chiefly because the Sox wanted to get as many righthanded bats as possible into the lineup against lefty Rob Ray. Danny Santana, a switch-hitter, is 3-for-7 with three homers in his career against Ray.
* Ryan Brasier has been given the green light to re-start more baseball activities Monday. "We just have to be patient with him,'' said Cora. "But it's good news. Finally, he can move forward and start doing more athletic activity.'' Brasier is recovering from being struck in the side of the head a few months ago and had been sldelined ever since.