In a stretch of misery, Red Sox’ bats (and Nathan Eovaldi) give Boston a much-needed break

At this stage of their extended slump, all that Alex Cora was really looking for was a win. Any kind. 

Textbook, comeback, suicide squeeze, lazy fly out for a walk-off, even the ol’ Brooks Kriske razzle dazzle. 

A win is a win — and given that the Red Sox found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard in 10 of their last 12 games, any type of victory would suffice for Boston’s manager in order to help get his team out of this weeks-long tailspin. 

But given all that has gone wrong for the Sox during a stretch that has seen the Rays supplant them atop the AL East standings, a candid Cora could only lament Tuesday night about a fate that has yet to fall their way for quite some time.

A much-needed blowout. A walk in the park. The type of game in which bodies in the grandstands become more concerned with stacking up beers to pass the time, rather than scratch through their Pollock-like scorecard.

Cora and his players are only human — and for as much as any etch in the win column would have been a welcome development on Wednesday, what Boston’s clubhouse truly needed was a no-pressure snoozer. 

“Hopefully tomorrow Nate (Eovaldi) goes to the mound, gives us a solid effort, we put a good offensive game, and we play good defense,” Cora said on Tuesday. We just need a good, sound game, from first pitch to last one. Kind of breathe a little bit and just enjoy it."

Boston’s lineup certainly shared such a sentiment on Wednesday night. But rather than follow a similar libretto to previous defeats in which a leaky bullpen and struggles with men on base doomed promising starts against Toronto and Tampa Bay — the Sox refreshingly went off script. 

Sure, the Rays might have a knack for orchestrating rallies and clawing out of deficits, but this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill, early-innings hole —  with a scoring salvo supplied by the Sox’ sluggers burying Tampa deep into the mantle of the Earth’s crust on Wednesday night. 

By the time the dust had settled, Cora and the Sox were finally back where they wanted to be. In the win column most importantly, and with little to no stress to be found in Boston’s dugout. 

Even though an ugly inning of relief from Phillips Valdéz might have marred what was a 19-run cushion for Boston entering the ninth inning — Cora and his team weren’t going to let a mop-up appearance gone awry mar what was eventually a convincing 20-8 victory for Boston.

“We needed it,” Cora said postgame. “We put ourselves in a situation to win the series tomorrow against them.”

Of course, the baseline numbers tend to catch your eye on a night where the Sox scored 20+ runs for the first time since August 15, 2015. 

But for Cora, the most encouraging development on a night where his batters accumulated 19 hits (10 for extra-bases) and nine walks was delivering with men on base — with Boston going 12-for-24 with RISP. 

“You take a look at everything that’s going on and this whole thing with men in scoring position, it has to change, right? it has to come back to normal,” Cora said. “And I’m not saying we’re going to hit .400, but we’re not going to hit .180. We started off well with Nate setting the tempo, Hunter (Renfroe) going the other way right away with a man on second and just kept rolling.”

Boston’s big guns like J.D. Martinez (4-for-4, six times on base) and Xander Bogaerts (two extra-base hits, four RBI) made their mark in the heart of the order, but multiple contributors stepped up on a night in which even that seven-run ninth for the Rays equated to a simple paper cut. 

Boston’s 1-2 hitters in Kiké Hernandez and Renfroe went 6-for-10 at the plate with six runs scored and clobbered four doubles. Marwin Gonzalez knocked in a pair of runs.

And for as much as every bloop and half-hearted swing has seemingly gone against the Sox as of late, Bobby Dalbec benefited from misfortune going against the Rays in the fifth — when a routine flyout to right was butchered by Randy Arozarena, leading to a bases-clearing triple. 

Dalbec, he of multiple sordid stretches at the plate this year, was the first Red Sox player to reach base safely 5+ times and record 5+ RBI in the same game since Andrew Benintendi accomplished the feat back in July 2017. 

Yep, it was just that type of game for the Red Sox. Finally.

Add in a sterling start for Eovaldi (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 10 Ks), and Cora didn’t have to do too much from the dugout — a nice change of pace from the last month or so.

Of course, Boston isn’t going to be routinely dropping 20 runs on the best teams in baseball — and you could very well make the argument that Kevin Cash simply punted on this one and fed starter Josh Fleming to the wolves (3.1 IP, 11 R) in preparation for a bullpen game in the rubber match on Thursday.

Still, there’s some reason for optimism on the side of the Sox. 

Boston’s bats are finally awakening — and help could be on the way with Kyle Schwarber potentially beginning his rehab assignment on Thursday. 

The Sox’ starting rotation has posted a 2.30 ERA over its last five games — with Tanner Houck and especially Chris Sale set to step into the performance-related vacancies left by Garrett Richards and Martin Perez.

And, for one night at least, the Sox could actually breathe easy on the field. And in the midst of a slump like this, that kind of respite can go a long way.