The Red Sox haven’t fared well against left-handers this season. They entered their series finale in Cincinnati ranked 3rd in the Majors in strikeouts against southpaw starters, with the 8th-fewest home runs, and 12th-lowest slugging percentage. (They did, however, have the 8th-most walks.)
But the Red Sox have been one of the hottest offenses in the game this month. They’ve also dominated on Sundays, and save for one dicey inning, that trend continued in their 7-4 victory over the Reds, which gave Boston their four straight series win and put them six games over .500 for the first time since the first week of September 2023.
Combined with the Kansas City Royals’ loss, the Red Sox officially hold the third American League Wild Card.
Led by Jarren Duran’s 3-for-5 afternoon, the lineup collected 10 hits for their 11th double-digit game of the month. They only had six such performances scattered among their 28 May games, and 12 in the 30 games between Opening Day and the end of April.
“What Jarren’s doing in the leadoff spot, it’s fun to watch,” Alex Cora told reporters. “It felt like they saw the ball well.
Cincinnati had won Nick Lodolo’s last five starts, but the Boston bats knocked the Reds starter out of the game after 4 ⅔ innings, his shortest start of the season. They tagged the southpaw for four runs (three earned) on five hits, and struck out three.
Lodolo, who entered the day with a significantly-better-than-league-average 5.8 walk percentage dating back to the start of 2023, issued a season-high four walks, tied for the second-most of his career. Inconsistent umpiring helped things along on more than one occasion, with several pitches on the edge of the zone going the way of the free pass. His third walk, to first baseman Dom Smith in the fourth, was the last straw for Reds manager David Bell, who got his money’s worth in his 30th career ejection to tie Sparky Anderson’s franchise record.
There were chances to score early on. Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neill got on base with a one-out walk and single in the first, only to be stranded. Likewise for Jarren Duran, who singled – extending his hitting streak to 13 games – and stole his 20th base of the season in the top of the third. Duran and David Hamilton (21 steals) are the only MLB teammates with 20+ steals this season, and according to Elias Sports Bureau, they join Tommy Dowd and Chick Stahl as the only Red Sox teammates to steal 20+ bases in the first 80 games of a season; Dowd and Stahl did so in the club’s inaugural season in 1901.
The Red Sox didn’t get to Lodolo until the fourth, but once they did, they really got him. Rafael Devers drew a leadoff walk (though Ball No. 4 was right on the edge of the zone), and on the first pitch he saw, Connor Wong blasted his seventh home run of the season to give Boston a 2-0 lead and extend his hitting streak to 13 games.
Romy Gonzalez immediately followed with a double, and Smith walked to join him on the bases. Ceddanne Rafaela ground into a force out, scoring Gonzalez and erasing Smith, then advanced to second on a throwing error by Jonathan India.
Duran had already singled – extending his hitting streak to 13 games – and stolen his 20th base of the season in the third. This time, the leadoff man blasted a ball 397 feet to center at 107.7 mph. It would’ve been a home run in seven ballparks, but at Great American, he had to settle for his 22nd double and driving in Rafaela to make it a four-run fourth inning.
In the top of the sixth, the Red Sox attacked another lefty. After Buck Farmer got two quick outs and gave up a double to Hamilton, the Reds sent southpaw Brent Suter to the mound, and the Red Sox pounced. Duran singled, bringing Hamilton around to score.
Then, who else but the King of the Road? Among players with at least 75 plate appearances, Refsnyder entered the day leading the Majors with a 1.059 road OPS. His two-run homer gave him a five-game hitting streak and extended Boston’s lead to 7-1.
It was a bullpen day for Boston, and save for Chase Anderson, they emptied the tank. Zack Kelly opened with 2.2 innings of dominance, striking out three and allowing one hit, his first in his last 35 batters faced. Brennan Bernardino, Greg Weissert, and Cam Booser followed.
The Red Sox would be immediately grateful for their three-run sixth inning immediately, when Brad Keller imploded in the bottom of the frame. He faced eight batters, and by the time he got Out No. 3, the Reds had scored three runs on four hits and a hit batsman, and the lead was back down to three.
Suddenly, the Reds had a little momentum, and the Red Sox offense stalled, going 1-2-3 against Suter in the seventh and eighth. Devers singled in the ninth, but his teammates struck out three times around him.
Rather than being able to keep Keller in for a long relief outing, the Red Sox manager felt he needed his setup man for the second day in a row. For the second game in a row, Chris Martin took care of business, setting the Reds down 1-2-3 in the seventh, and Justin Slaten pitched a scoreless eighth, working around a two-out hit batsman.
Kenley Jansen became Boston’s eighth pitcher, and converted his second save in as many days. A first-pitch pop-out, ground-out, single, and flyout cemented the win. Since April 20, the veteran closer is 11-for-11 in save opportunities, with 15 on the season. It was also the first time since May 19 that the pitching staff put together a walk-less performance, the club’s seventh of the season.
“We asked certain guys a lot today, in the pitching department,” Cora said. “Threw the ball well. Zack keeps pounding the strike zone with good stuff, (Booser) this was his third straight day that he pitches, got us some big out. Marty was good again, the ‘Big Guy’ was good.”
“Overall, a great team performance,” Cora lauded. “We finished the trip the right way.”
“We’re coming together as a team and we’re picking each other up,” Duran told NESN’s Jahmai Webster.
The Red Sox are 42-36. They went 5-1 on this road trip to Toronto and Cincinnati, they’ve won 10 of their last 13 games and are 20-12 since May 19.
“It’s a longer lineup, a lineup that can do a lot of stuff. We’re very dynamic, and we went from a roster that we had some question marks early on in the season, and now it feels like it’s one of the best rosters, position-player-wise, that we’ve had in a while,” Cora assessed. “This is a complete – I mean the 13 players that we have are doing an outstanding job… Everybody’s doing their part. They’re doing what we ask them to do, and they’re playing with joy.”
And if the regular season ended today, the Red Sox would get to keep playing.