It seems the fourth time is the charm…
After coming out on the wrong end of their first three series after the Midsummer Classic, the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday finally got back on track with a series-clinching victory over the Seattle Mariners.
It was by no means an easy task…
“For how ‘bad’ the homestand was, it was 3-3,” Alex Cora said after his team’s 3-2 extra-innings victory. “We had chances to win more than that, but that’s not the case. Today was a grinder, for all of us, for them too. To end up winning, it was great.”
Rafael Devers did what he does best: play the hero. Devers stepped up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the 10th against Mariners reliever Jhonathan Diaz and drove a 2-0 slider off the Green Monster to easily plate ghost runner Tyler O’Neill from second.
Devers delivers and the Red Sox walk it off in extras! pic.twitter.com/5c04cImC2X
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 31, 2024
The clutch hit continued a strong stretch for Devers at the plate. Since the second game of the series in Colorado, Devers has recorded a hit in every game — seven straight overall — and has homered twice while recording eight doubles and seven RBIs.
“This week was really good (for him),” Cora said of Devers. “Just having an idea what they wanted to do. He used the opposite field really well.”
Brayan Bello was the unsung hero of this game for the Sox. Despite not factoring into the decision in a game that needed extras, the young right-hander held a potential American League playoff team to two runs on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.
“He was really good,” Cora said. “The four-seamer was good in that spot. He actually threw the changeup. The action, I don’t know numbers-wise whatever, but ‘Tek noticed it. It felt like it was the best one.”
Bello credited new backup catcher Danny Jansen — who made a nice sprawling play to catch a foul out in the ninth with Kenley Jansen on the mound — with his success in the outing.
"We got into a good rhythm,” Bello said through a team interpreter.
Gonna catch ’em all cuz he’s Danny Jansen pic.twitter.com/h1MP5lqBSQ
— MLB (@MLB) July 31, 2024
The afternoon also featured the debut of trade deadline acquisition Lucas Sims. The former Cincinnati Reds right-hander was called upon to make his Fenway Park debut in a tough spot, coming on in relief of Bello with runners on the corners and one out in a 2-2 game.
Sims coaxed a first-pitch fly out by Randy Arozarena on an 89-mph cutter before walking Cal Raleigh on five pitches to load the bases. Facing old friend Justin Turner, the new Sox righty fired in a first-pitch sweeper for a ball before Turner grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat on a 90-mph cutter.
That’s exactly what the Sox were looking for from the creme de la creme of their 2024 trade deadline class. Sims displayed the poise needed for a late-inning reliever to be successful and handed the baton to Josh Winckowski, who fired a scoreless eighth.
After Kenley got the Sox through the ninth, Zack Kelly strung together a second straight solid, high-leverage appearance after tossing a scoreless two-thirds in the eighth of the 11-8 loss to the Yankees over the weekend.
This time, Kelly pitched made quick work of the Mariners in a scoreless top of the 10th, allowing no hits with a walk and a strikeout to pick up the win and improve his record to 4-1 on the season.
“I really needed one like that today,” Kelly told NESN during the postgame on-field interview.
It was a strong showing for the bullpen, and an encouraging one. Boston’s biggest issue since the All-Star break — and dating back before that — has been its relief pitching. This was an outing that served to shore up concerns about the back end of Boston’s pitching staff.
Now the Sox head back out on the road for a three-game set at Kansas City before coming back to Fenway for a difficult six-game homestand against the defending champion Texas Rangers and the always-difficult Houston Astros.
After Wednesday’s win, the Sox trail the Royals by two games for the third and final AL wild card spot. Boston is also two games ahead of Houston, and 2 1/2 ahead of AL East rival Tampa Bay.
Said Cora after Tuesday’s loss, “Where we at right now, I feel comfortable that we can show up (Wednesday) and over the weekend and Kansas City and have the right guys.”
Kirby honors Wake again
George Kirby was among the first to honor late, great Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield following his tragic death from brain cancer last October.
On the day Tim Wakefield passed away, George Kirby broke out a knuckleball. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/RWcbtC8bDl
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2023
On Wednesday, Kirby made it a point to pay tribute to one of his favorite pitchers once more.
Kirby opened his start against Boston by throwing a first-pitch 73 mph knuckleball to Jarren Duran. The pitch sailed high for a ball, but that didn’t matter. It was a gesture that could be appreciated by Mariners and Red Sox fans alike.
George Kirby threw a knuckleball to begin Wednesday's game against the Red Sox to pay tribute to Tim Wakefield ❤️
— MLB (@MLB) August 1, 2024
“He was a special player. So just being able to do it here in Boston was pretty cool.” - George Kirby pic.twitter.com/3vLyb7yEGZ
“I want that one back,” Kirby joked. “I always try to start it 0-1 on that one.”
On paper, Kirby would seem like an unlikely Wakefield fan. The 26-year-old All-Star right-hander was born in Rye, New York, about a 35-minute drive from Yankee Stadium.
“I loved watching him. I started throwing knuckleballs because of him,” Kirby told me when I asked him what Wakefield meant to him. “I’m a Yankee fan at heart, but just watching him do his thing all the time — it was incredible.”
Kirby would have been six years old during the height of the Sox-Yankees rivalry. For someone with strong New York ties to look up to a key member of your childhood rival says a lot about both the character of Kirby and Wakefield.
“It’s just an honor to be able to do something like that,” Kirby said.
Gethin Coolbaugh is a correspondent for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.