It may not have been another walk-off officially, but in the moment it sure felt like it.
A day after sending them home happy with his second walk-off winner of the season, Alex Verdugo came through again with what turned out to be the game-winning two-run single in the bottom of the fifth. That broke a scoreless tie, and with the game now official and a steady rain already falling it gave the Red Sox the breathing room they needed if the game was eventually called due to weather.
That call didn’t wind up coming, but despite the soggy conditions the Red Sox still made sure the lead held up in the 7-1 win.
Though Verdugo delivered the big hit, Chris Sale was the one who really won Boston the game. The big lefty shook off last Monday’s lackluster outing in Baltimore and was much sharper, allowing just one run over a season-high 6.1 innings with three hits, no walks and five strikeouts.
Along the way Sale pitched his way out of two jams, first working around a Rafael Devers error and a hit batter to post a scoreless fifth before limiting Cleveland to one run in the sixth after the Guardians led off with a double and an RBI single.
“That’s the Sale we remember,” Verdugo said. “He knew it was time to go full throttle, made some good pitches and battled his butt off on a tough day. He was huge for us.”
Sale came back out to start the seventh and forced Andrés Giménez to fly out before handing the game over to John Schreiber and the bullpen, walking off to a standing ovation.
After the game Sale said he made a number of adjustments after working with the coaches and video staff, and they’re hopeful the gains he unlocked will prove more sustainable going forward.
“This one had more of what I used to do in it,” Sale said. “Being a little bit more athletic, being a little bit more loose, not being as stiff and upright, stuff like that. Today was a good day but it takes the whole squad to get there so I had a lot of help this past week and throughout with some unbelievable defensive plays.”
Sale keeping the Guardians at bay was essential on a day where a rain-shortened affair seemed likely, but as the afternoon wore on the Red Sox offense made a point to not leave anything to chance.
Connor Wong gave the club some insurance in the sixth with a towering two-run home run that cleared the Green Monster, and in the seventh Verdugo added a solo shot and Christian Arroyo a two-run double to break the game open.
John Schreiber, Richard Bleier and Brennan Bernardino finished things off with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief, a drama-free finish to a big series victory for the Red Sox.
“We knew it was going to be a rainy day all day and in those situations you never know when the rain is going to get heavy, if the game gets cancelled or whatever, so you’re looking at it inning by inning we have to go,” Arroyo said. “So for [Sale] to come up out here in this weather and do what he did it just speaks volumes of him as a pitcher.”
With the win Boston is now back over .500 at 15-14 on the season but faces a tough test with the Toronto Blue Jays coming to town for a four-game series. The Blue Jays (18-10) dominated the Red Sox last season, winning 16 of 19 meetings, and come to Fenway having won six of their last seven.
Corey Kluber (1-4, 6.75 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound for the Red Sox against Toronto’s Jose Berrios (2-3, 4.71). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
While Sale was dealing at Fenway Park, fellow lefty James Paxton was enjoying his best performance in some time about an hour down the Mass Pike.
Paxton pitched 5.1 scoreless innings for the Worcester Red Sox in his latest rehab start, allowing two hits and a walk while striking out eight. His fastball averaged 94.1 mph and he generated 16 whiffs on the day, by far his best performance during what has largely been a rocky series of Triple-A outings.
The Red Sox have been noncommittal over whether Sunday would be Paxton’s last rehab appearance, but Cora says he’s fully healthy and now the issue is getting his mechanics back where they need to be.
If Sunday was any indication Paxton is just about ready, now the Red Sox will have some decisions to make on how he best fits into the picture going forward.