BOSTON -- The Fenway freeze has to end at some point, doesn’t it?
While Wednesday night’s 3-1 victory over the Phillies represented only a slight thaw for Boston’s cold bats (particularly cold this season in home games), it also signified hope of a turnaround.
Trevor Story, one of the most noted slumpers of them all, hammered his first homer at Fenway Park this season and third overall.
Ceddanne Rafaela didn’t start, but he took the most impactful hack of the game, belting a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning that snapped a 1-1 tie.
While Rafaela is off to a decent start at the plate, particularly in comparison with several others in the usual starting nine, his 376-foot rocket over the Monster served as a reminder of how dangerous he can be when he gets hot.
And that’s what the Red Sox (18-24) have lacked: Players swinging hot bats. Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu are both having solid seasons, but nobody has gotten on a ridiculous heater.
If just one or two players do so, it could make a big difference. Particularly with such a strong starting rotation.
“Tonight, we got the long ball and instant runs,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “It’s still three [runs]. We want to get more obviously, but two big swings in big spots, and Rafaela obviously huge right there.”
Sonny Gray was the latest Sox starter to turn in a stellar outing, holding the Phillies to two hits and just one run while walking one and striking out six in his second start back from the injured list.
Sure, the Sox and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made a well-documented “pivot” to pitching and defense after Alex Bregman slipped away to the Cubs in January, but that didn’t mean they planned on an offense putting too much pressure on the pitching staff.
At the very least, the Sox planned on some frequent clangs off the Monster.
But Boston’s offensive rankings among MLB’s 30 teams at home at the conclusion of Wednesday night’s game paint a pretty clear picture of how things have gone to date.
• 30th in home runs (11)
• 26th in average (.223)
• T-25th in OBP (.299)
• 30th in SLG (.326)
• 28th in OPS (.626)
• 29th in runs per game (2.86)
• T-16th in doubles (32)
With 120 games left in the season, it would be stunning for those rankings not to shoot up to at least a respectable range, especially with the weather soon to heat up.
“Yeah, and it’s well documented. Fenway is a good place to hit,” Tracy said before the game. “So, yeah, it’s surprising we’ve hit better on the road than we have here. But again, I think it's more broadly a case of trying to get the guys we have here to be themselves.”
For one of the few times this season, Story looked himself when he unloaded for that Statcast-projected 424-foot homer over the Green Monster in left-center field for the first run of the game.
Though Gray gave one back in the top of the third, as Justin Crawford belted an equalizing solo shot to center, Boston’s pitching staff went into shutdown mode from there.
And the offense got the one more big hit it needed when Rafaela got all of a 96.8 mph fastball in a 1-2 count against Orion Kerkering.
“You guys have seen there is a clutch gene in there with him, he tends to get big hits in big moments,” Tracy said of his center fielder.
Gray was happy to do his part while his offense continued to grind for that elusive groove.
“I 100 percent believe in all of the guys in that locker room, and we just need to win as many games as we can and keep pushing forward,” Gray said. “Because I do think one of those runs, one of those streaks is coming for us. Tonight was awesome. Great defense, a couple big homers, but we are a good offensive team, and we’re a good team. And I truly believe that. So our time is coming.”