DETROIT -- In two impressive nights in Detroit, the Red Sox have made their near season-long offensive slump look like a distant memory.
Could the Boston bats at last be turning the corner?
After Monday’s five-run eruption in the seventh inning that led to a 5-4 victory, Tuesday’s encore included a barrage of powerful moments against Tigers lefty Framber Valdez en route to a 10-3 conquest.
Ceddanne Rafaela got the party started with a three-run homer to right field in the top of the first. During a five-run third inning, the Sox hid the power ball and hit exclusively singles, including run-scoring ones from Rafaela, Andruw Monasterio, Caleb Durbin and Connor Wong.
In the fourth, the blasts were back. In fact, they came back-to-back. Willson Contreras led off the frame with his eighth homer of the season (a Statcast-projected 449-foot shot finished by a vintage bat flip). Wilyer Abreu followed by mauling one over the wall in right.
Perhaps giving up 10 runs in a start the day after the Tigers lost ace Tarik Skubal to an elbow injury was too much for Valdez to handle at that point, because he drilled Trevor Story on the first pitch after the Abreu homer.
Understandably, Story was upset, and he was held back by home-plate umpire Adam Beck. Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown. Valdez was ejected, as his intentions seemed obvious to all.
While the batting barrage was the lead story, Brayan Bello provided a nice second subplot with his best pitching performance in weeks.
So mighty were Bello’s struggles, the Sox opted to use him as a bulk reliever in this one. Perhaps they will continue to do that as long as it works as well as it did Tuesday.
The righty pounded the strike zone with precision and kept the Tigers off-balanced over a seven-inning performance in which he allowed four hits and a run while walking one and striking out seven. Bello threw 94 pitches, 66 of them for strikes.
While there is still a game to play at Comerica Park on Wednesday night, the 15-21 Sox clinched their first series victory in three tries under interim manager Chad Tracy.