BSJ Game Report: Red Sox 9, Mariners 4 - Timely hitting takes over as Boston snaps losing streak

All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' win over the Mariners, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Sox get back in the win column: The Red Sox ended a four-game slide with losses in six of their last seven. It was Boston’s best outing of the homestand to even the series with Seattle at one apiece. They’ll have a chance to win it on Wednesday. 

Bats come alive: After rather quiet games in a row at the plate, mostly (a 4-3 loss, a 9-1 loss and a 10-1 loss), Boston’s offense capitalized. Justin Turner, Triston Casas and Jarren Duran homered, while Masataka Yoshida had three RBI. The Sox finished with 11 hits, going 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranding six.

Bullpen holds it down: Nick Pivetta had some trouble in the fourth inning before getting out of a jam in the fifth. Ryan Sherriff, Josh Winckowski and Justin Garza were steady out of the pen, keeping Seattle scoreless the rest of the way.

TURNING POINT

Bottom of the fifth: After the Mariners’ bottom of the order did plenty of two-out damage against Pivetta to tie it at 4-4, the bats came alive after some sleepy innings following the fourth. Alex Verdugo got it started with a double, later scoring on Yoshida’s second extra-base knock of the game, and Duran’s blast into the bullpen gave the Red Sox important insurance. 

THREE UP

Top of the order: Verdugo didn’t have the greatest series against St. Louis and faltered in key moments on Monday, but bounced back tonight, going 2-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Also worked a walk and started a big first inning after reaching on an error. Yoshida went 2-for-5 with three RBI and two runs after combining to go 1-for-7 on Saturday and Sunday. Helped set the tone in the loud first and fifth innings. Turner also came up big after a relatively sleepy weekend, putting an exclamation point on Boston’s start with a two-run homer. Finished 2-for-5.

Jarren Duran: Durran had a rough start, striking out his first two times up to bat before failing to complete a diving catch in the fourth, allowing for Teoscar Hernández’s triple and Seattle’s first two runs. Put it all behind him with a two-run homer to really open it up in the bottom of the fifth before adding another hit and a stolen base in the seventh. Important response for the youngster.

Bullpen: Sherriff (1 K) and Garza no-hit the three batters they each faced after getting called up from Worcester. Both pounded the strike zone. Garza through 11 of 14 pitches for strikes, and Sherriff through nine of 13 for strikes. Big bounceback for Winckowski (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 K, 25/15) after struggling against St. Louis on Friday. 

ONE ‘MEH’

Nick Pivetta: Pivetta was fine. Mostly cruised through his first three innings. Executed a nice slider to get Taylor Trammell looking in the second to get out of a jam. Struggled against the bottom of the order in the fourth, giving up four hits (including a two-run homer to Trammell) and a walk with two outs to let Seattle back into it with the game tied. Got himself out of another jam in the fifth with a strikeout.

"He was good early on. kind of like ran out of gas in that [fourth] inning," Alex Cora said. "Fastball down to Teoscar, and we tried to make a play. They scored two. And then I want to say it was a fastball right? On the Homer. But gave us enough. 5.1 innings, four runs. When we're swinging the bat well, that's good enough for us."

ONE DOWN

Rafael Devers: Devers had a five-game hit streak and a four-game RBI streak coming into this one as well as 20 RBI in his last 21 games. The two streaks came to an end as he went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Granted had some hard foul balls, that if straightened out, would have kept him hot. 

QUOTE OF NOTE

"I don't get caught up in that stuff. Like I said, we were two innings away from that talking about a sense of urgency, right?" Cora said of if he worried about the losing streak snowballing. "Played two good games Friday and Saturday, and it just didn't happen, right? And then Sunday and Monday we struggled. Today we played the game. We have a chance tomorrow to win the series."

UP NEXT

Third game will be Wednesday night at Fenway at 7:10 p.m. RHP Brayan Bello (2-1, 5.01 ERA) will face LHP Marco Gonzalez (3-0, 4.42 ERA).