BSJ Game Report: Red Sox 5, Braves 3 - Boston bats come alive late in comeback win

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

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Sox make it four straight, sweep MLB best: Justin Turner hit a two-RBI go-ahead double off the Monster in the bottom of the seventh, and the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 hole to take down the Braves, 5-3, completing a two-game sweep and winning the season series, 3-1, over the MLB's best team at Fenway on Wednesday.

Bats come alive after pitchers’ duel early on: What started as a pitchers' duel between Brayan Bello and Spencer Strider with just five hits combined through five innings quickly became a home run derby. Ozzie Albies broke the stalemate with a three-run blast in the top of the sixth before Rafael Devers answered in the bottom half of the inning. Triston Casas cut it to 3-2 with a shot to dead center to start the bottom of the seventh before Turner's go-ahead rip. Adam Duvall's laser into the Sox' bullpen added insurance.

Bullpen locks it down: John Schreiber had a close call with an Auston Riley shot in the top of the eighth that Alex Verdugo tracked back to haul in, but other than that, the bullpen was smooth in relief between Joe Jacques, Brennan Bernardino and Kenley Jansen, allowing just two hits between the four of them in three innings of work. Jansen picked up the save in the ninth, getting Orlando Arcia swinging on a low-and-away slider to end it. 

TURNING POINTS

Bottom of the sixth and seventh: Boston’s bats were ice cold with just three hits to their names until Devers snapped the dugout out of its funk with his solo shot to right to get the Sox on the board. Casas kept the momentum alive with his first-pitch tank to straightaway center with one gone in the seventh. Turner came through again with two outs in the seventh, driving in the game-tying and winning runs. 

SIX UP

Triston Casas: Automatic day at the plate for Casas, going 2-for-2 with two walks, a single and the homer he tattooed to centerfield. Exactly the type of game the Red Sox were signing up for when Casas made the Major League roster. 

Justin Turner: What more can you say about the guy at this point? Absolute professional. Playing more than a game at second base for the first time since 2015? No problem. The veteran made a strong play on a grounder up the middle, running to his right before making the throw to first in the top of the second. At the plate, he added a single in addition to his go-ahead double that surely might have been gone in most other parks, finishing 2-for-4.

Rafael Devers: Was trending to be a 'Down' early on in the game with one official error, which likely should have been two. Nevertheless, put the fielding miscues and first two at-bats behind him when he went down and took a low-and-inside slider for a ride to right field to snap Boston out of it. Would have been a home run in all 30 ballparks. 

Connor Wong: Another steady night behind the dish. Came through with a crucial throw to get Forrest Wall stealing at second. Went 2-for-3 with a run at the plate.

Adam Duvall: Added insurance with his home run in the eighth inning, a rocket off the bat. 

Bullpen: Picked up Bello after he gave up the homer to Albies. Bernardino only faced one batter but remains automatic. Jacques picked up the win and had probably his best relief outing in three appearances. Jansen maxed out his fastball at 97 miles per hour, again finding another gear against his former team. Red Sox relievers have a 1.00 ERA nad 55 strikeouts in the last eight games. 

NOTABLE 

The Red Sox improved to 15-5 since June 30, the best record in the MLB. Their 22-12 record since June 14 is the best in the American League. They are a season-high eight games above .500, winning nine of their last 10 at home. Boston has also won six of its last seven series and five of its last six at home.

Wednesday marks their ninth straight win in the City Connect uniforms. They're 6-0 in 2023 and 21-4 overall when wearing the uniforms.

Bello has a team-leading 10 starts of 6.0-plus innings with quality starts in eight of his last nine. He's the first Red Sox pitcher under the age of 24 to have at least 10 quality starts in a season since Eduardo Rodríguez had 12 in 2017. 

QUOTE OF NOTE

"We don't go with that," Alex Cora said of beating the best team in baseball twice in a row. "We lost to Oakland 2-out-of-3 a week ago. So, every team is good at this level. They can beat you. Like I said, we play well against [Atlanta]. They have a great team. ... Hopefully we can play them again. That's the goal here, but we've got work to do and they've got work to do. It's still early in the season. I've got to give credit to those guys in the clubhouse. You know, they're grinding and playing hard. They're doing everything possible to make it interesting. 

"Now, if you start looking, it's not only the wildcard you know, I think the division, you know, everybody's coming back to Earth. So we know we're going to play a lot of games against the Orioles and the Rays, all that stuff. What looked impossible two months ago or a month ago, we were down what, 15 games? And now it's down to seven or six, whatever it is. So we'll keep shooting up there and see what happens."

UP NEXT

Boston is back at it on Friday for the first of a six-game swing on the west coast, starting with three games in San Francisco. Friday’s first pitch is set for 10:15 p.m. ET. RHP Kutter Crawford (4-5, 4.04 ERA) is set to face RHP Logan Webb (8-8, 3.48 ERA).