With gem from Gray, Red Sox flip narrative of homestand

BOSTON -- The run prevention the Red Sox envisioned for this season took a while to make an entrance, but it has been out in full force the last two days.

And with it came the club’s first two-game winning streak of the season, and what had been an elusive first series victory.

Sonny Gray followed Garrett Crochet’s strong effort on Tuesday with one of his own on Wednesday, lifting his Red Sox to a 5-0 victory in the rubber match of a three-game series against the Brewers and the finale of a six-game homestand at Fenway Park.

“I was just thinking ‘happy flight, happy flight.’ You want to win on getaway day,” said Gray. “I watched [Crochet] last night, the game was over, and it was like, ‘OK, it’s my turn to go out there and keep it going. Win back-to-back games, go on the road, have an off-day.’ I think overall it was a great game last night and to continue that into today was a good finish for the homestand.”

A happy flight to St. Louis for Thursday’s off-day seemed hard to imagine a few days ago, when the Sox came home and lost three out of four as their record plummeted to 2-8 for just the ninth time in club history.

But the road to recovery, manager Alex Cora emphasized earlier this week, would start on the mound.

“That's how it should be,” said Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez. “We know what we are capable of, and those guys in the starting rotation, the first five, are amazing. That will come with time. We’re trying to clean up what happened. That’s already in the past. We’ve got to move forward. We won this series. That’s all that matters now. We’ve got six on the road.”

And Gray, who bookended this 3-3 homestand with strong performances, walked off to a standing ovation and doffed his cap to a crowd of 28,660.

It came after 6 1/3 scoreless innings in which he allowed three hits while walking two and striking out two over 90 pitches.

“It was cool, it was nice,” said Gray. “I still want to be on the mound -- I want to come off when Sweet Caroline starts playing [in the bottom of the eighth], so that’s something I’m looking forward to doing at some point.”

Cora thought about taking Gray out after six, but the 36-year-old let his manager know he had more in the tank.

“I just said, ‘I have another zero in me if you need it.’ I didn’t know where our bullpen stood or where we were at. I just said, ‘I have another zero if you need it,’ and he said, ‘Are you sure?' and I said yes. So we just moved forward. In the seventh, he made the decision that I faced the first two, and Greg [Weissert] came in and shut it down.”

For the crowd to be in such an enthusiastic mood on getaway day was a stark contrast from earlier in the homestand, when boos rattled around MLB’s oldest ballpark.

“We understand the moment we are in,” Narváez said. “I know it doesn't feel good right now from the fan base. But for us, we want to win as badly as they want us to. These last two games were huge.”

When a starting rotation is clicking and can make a clean handoff to the bullpen, it lessens the temptation of hitters to press.

“We will pitch. We're going to be better,” Cora said. “And for this team to make it to October, we have to pitch. And we will.”

Gray (2-0, 2.76 ERA) was the first major acquisition of the offseason, a few days before Thanksgiving. The Red Sox trusted his track record, his work ethic and his intellect.

Now, they look forward to watching it play out in real time. Few pitchers in the game have as deep an arsenal as Gray, which is how he can excel with a fastball that topped out at 92.3 mph on Wednesday and averaged 91.5.

Three starts in, Narváez is gaining increasing comfort with which button to push on Pitchcom for Gray.

“You’ve got to be on the same page,” said Narváez. “He has all his preparation done. You’ve got to be really thinking the same way [as him]. The clock is going. You’ve got multiple pitches. I know how he works now. The first couple was still knowing him. He was dealing today, and that's what we needed.”

For a ravenous fan base that is hungry for more early-season wins, it is what just about everyone at Fenway needed on Wednesday.