Wednesday night marked one of the best pitcher’s duels we’ve seen at Fenway Park this season, a heavyweight battle between 24-year-old phenoms Brayan Bello and Spencer Strider.
But in the end, it was the Red Sox offense that stole the show.
Unable to get anything going against Strider for much of the game, the Red Sox rallied for five unanswered runs late to beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3. Triston Casas led the way, going 2 for 2 with two walks and a solo home run, and Justin Turner delivered the exclamation point with the go-ahead two-run double to cap off a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh.
The Red Sox flipped the script on a night where it looked like one small miscue might mean the difference between Bello and Strider.
The young standouts, who came into the night as two of only five pitchers age 24 or under who have recorded at least 2.0 wins above replacement so far this season, more than lived up to the hype. Each mowed down their respective opposition, with Strider racking up strikeouts left and right while Bello drew two inning-ending double plays to cut short potential Atlanta scoring opportunities.
The game remained scoreless into the sixth inning, but at that point Bello finally ran into trouble he couldn’t work his way out of. He allowed a leadoff double, hit Ronald Acuña Jr. and then served up a middle-middle fastball that Ozzie Albies crushed for a three-run home run.
Fortunately, Bello’s teammates had his back.
Rafael Devers broke up Strider’s momentum in the bottom of the sixth by golfing a slider practically out of the dirt and into the right field bleachers for a solo home run. Then in the seventh Casas took Strider deep and Connor Wong singled to chase the Braves’ strikeout machine from the game.
Yu Chang greeted Braves reliever Pierce Johnson with a single and Turner delivered the hammer with his go-ahead double. Adam Duvall tacked on a solo home run in the eighth to extend the lead and Joe Jacques, John Schreiber, Brennan Bernardino and Kenley Jansen combined for three scoreless innings of relief, with Jansen locking things down for his 22nd save of the season.
Bello finished with three runs allowed over six innings, with four hits, two walks, four strikeouts and a home run. It was his 10th quality start of the season and his ERA is now 3.66 for the season. Strider allowed three runs (two earned) over 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and a walk while striking out 10.
The Red Sox (55-47) are now a season-high eight games over .500 and clinch both the two-game sweep and the season series (3-1) over a Braves club that is widely regarded as the best team in baseball. Boston now has another off day Thursday before heading back to the west coast to open a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Friday.
Kutter Crawford (4-5, 4.04 ERA) is scheduled to get the start against Logan Webb (8-8, 3.48) on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 10:15 p.m. ET.