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4 takeaways as Xander Bogaerts’ homer lifts Red Sox over Guardians in series finale
Bogaerts hit a three-run blast in the sixth to break a scoreless game for the Red Sox.
Here are the takeaways as the Red Sox closed their series against the Guardians with a 4-2 victory, spurred by Xander Bogaerts’ heroics.
The Big Picture
For five innings, the Red Sox threatened to waste an excellent outing by Kutter Crawford. The 26-year-old allowed just three hits and one run on a homer by José Ramírez in the fourth, but his teammates mustered nothing for the first five frames. When Cora pulled the plug on Crawford’s outing with two outs and a runner on second in the sixth, the Red Sox’s offense looked uncomfortably anemic.
Then in the sixth, with two runners on and one out, Triston McKenzie hung a slider right in the middle of the plate for Bogaerts. He didn’t miss the opportunity, blasting the mistake 412 feet to left and changing the complexion of the game entirely with one swing.
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“That was a huge swing for us,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We haven’t had one of those in a while.”
The Red Sox tacked on one more run in the seventh when Bobby Dalbec hit a 339-foot, 103-mph single off the wall in left, which scored Franchy Cordero. The Guardians got one run back in the eighth, but Garrett Whitlock picked up a two-inning save — his third since the start of 2021, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
Star of the Game
Xander Bogaerts — 1-for-2, one run, three RBIs, homer, two walks
With apologies to Crawford for passing over a very nice outing, Bogaerts hit a badly needed homer at an incredibly opportune time.
What It Means
The Red Sox are back to .500 at the 100-game mark. While they are still last in the bruising AL East, they maintained pace at 4.5 games behind the Blue Jays, 3.5 behind the Rays and a half-game behind the Orioles.
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“It doesn’t look great, but it doesn’t look awful either,” Cora said. “We’re right there.”
Takeaways
1. According to Crawford, perhaps the biggest key to his success has been adding a curveball to his regular repertoire. Of the 736 pitches he threw this season, 112 (15.2 percent) were curves per Baseball Savant. Importantly, it’s a good pitch: Opposing hitters are batting just .136 with an XBA of .144 against Crawford’s curveball.
“You can’t just rely on two pitches and try to get away with it,” Cora said. “The cutter is good, the four-seamer is good, the curveball, the split whenever he uses it, it’s been good. Like I said before, I’ve been saying all along, it’s good stuff in the zone.”
Crawford added that he feels at home as a starter.
“I came up as a starter, so it’s definitely more comfortable,” he said. ‘”… I had to fix some things mechanically, but the last month, I feel like I’m starting to get a little groove.”
2. Bogaerts improved at the plate over the last week (.348/.444/.609 in 27 plate appearances against the Guardians), and Cora singled out one thing to watch post-game: His patience.
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“Taking his walks, that’s the most important thing,” Cora said. “When you see him start to dominate the strike zone, good things start to happen.”
3. Ramírez’s homer cleared the Pesky Pole in right comfortably (413 feet with an exit velocity of 105) but sparked some controversy as to whether or not it was fair. Ultimately, it appeared umpires made the correct call.
Cora was asked what he would like the Red Sox to do about the Pesky Pole and cameras, but he declined comment saying he really didn’t know the answer.
“I lost [Ramírez’s homer] in the twilight today,” he said.
4. Jake Diekman picked up the win with 1.1 scoreless innings that included two nasty strikeouts.
Diekman — who other teams may eye with interest if the Red Sox opt to make some selling moves — hit a season-high 98.6 mph on his fastball.
“A few adjustments, mechanics-wise,” Cora said. “He’s on time now. You see 97, 98, 99, the misses are close to the strike zone. It’s good to see. Probably stuff-wise, we’ve seen this guy for a while, that’s the best fastball of the last 3-4 years.”
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