Tuesday was shaping up to be a major disappointment for the Red Sox.
Coming into the evening riding a three-game losing streak, the club’s highly anticipated trade deadline wound up landing with a thud. With no major reinforcements coming and several rivals nipping at their heels, the Red Sox really couldn’t afford to let things spiral any further.
To their credit, the Red Sox hung tough and found a way to turn things around.
Making his return after more than a month on the injured list, catcher Reese McGuire hit his first home run of the season and tacked on a sacrifice fly to help lead the Red Sox to a badly needed 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Alex Verdugo also hit a two-run home run and Christian Arroyo had a two-run double to pace a bounce back effort by the Red Sox offense after a string of punchless performances, and the Boston bullpen came up huge in the late-innings to keep Seattle at bay.
Though Brayan Bello did not have his best outing, he was able to grind his way through six innings and worked his way out of a potentially calamitous first with minimal damage.
After allowing a leadoff walk to J.P. Crawford, Bello allowed Seattle to take a 1-0 lead following a pair of singles by Julio Rodriguez and Eugenio Suarez. Cal Raleigh then walked to load the bases with no outs, but Bello was able to work his way out of the jam by getting a flyout, a strikeout and a ground out to end the threat.
Seattle maintained the lead until the fourth, when the Red Sox flipped things with a three-run inning thanks to Arroyo’s two-run ground rule double to right and McGuire’s sac fly. Verdugo stretched the lead to 5-1 in the fifth with his two-run shot, but Bello ran into trouble from there after Suarez stung him for a two-run shot in the fifth and Ty France an RBI double in the sixth.
Bello worked his way out of trouble again afterwards, stranding a runner at third thanks in part to a tremendous sliding catch by Jarren Duran in left. Bello finished with four runs allowed on eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts, and though it was only his second outing since the beginning of June in which he’d failed to record a quality start, he was still good enough to earn the win.
The bullpen certainly earned its keep as well.
Chris Martin followed Bello and pitched a scoreless seventh, but Josh Winckowski had to work to keep the Mariners down in the eighth. Seattle drew a leadoff walk and eventually got the tying runs in scoring position with one out thanks in part to a bizarre sequence of poor throws across the diamond on a France single, but Winckowski came back by striking out Mike Ford and Josh Rojas to escape unscathed.
That set the table for Kenley Jansen, who worked a drama-free bottom of the ninth to lock down his 24th save of the year.
With Toronto getting blown out by Baltimore earlier in the evening, the Red Sox gained ground in the AL Wild Card and now stand only 1.5 games out of the playoffs. Boston will look to wrap up the roadtrip with a series win on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.
Coming off a series of successful bullpen sessions, Chris Sale began his minor league rehab assignment on Tuesday and got the start for the WooSox in Syracuse. The left-hander threw 40 pitches over 2-plus innings and allowed one hit and two walks while striking out three.
Sale told reporters afterwards that he felt good and that he expects to make another rehab appearance for the WooSox in Syracuse this coming Sunday.
Shortstop Trevor Story, who is also rehabbing with the WooSox, went 1 for 3 with a two-run home run and a walk in the club’s 5-4 extra-innings loss and played seven innings at shortstop. Red Sox manager Alex Cora has indicated its possible but not a guarantee Story could be activated this weekend, but his rehab assignment is due to expire next Wednesday, so he should return to the big leagues at some point in the next week regardless.