ATLANTA – Searching for the big hit like someone thirsts for water on a 100-degree day in the desert, Willson Contreras put at least a temporary end to a stunning offensive dryspell for the Red Sox of late.
His team four outs from defeat, the cleanup hitter provided the biggest hit to this point of the season for his slumping squad, walloping a two-run homer to left to overturn a one-run deficit and lift Boston to a 3-2 victory over the Braves at Truist Field.
“Huge, huge,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “He's our guy. That guy is our presence in the middle of the order that can do instant damage. And that changed the dugout in a hurry with that swing.”
Yes, to be a fly on the wall in that visiting dugout at the moment that baseball landed in the seats.
“I got fired up a little bit. Heart rate spiked pretty hard,” said Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle. “But why wouldn't it? It's a pretty good moment.”
It was a moment unlike any the Sox have had to this point in ‘26. It was the first go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later in Boston’s first 45 games. The Sox became the 24th of MLB’s 30 teams to tie a game with a homer in the eighth inning or later.
It was Boston’s first win in 22 tries when trailing after seven innings.
As for Tolle, his heart rate dropped enough from his home run-induced joy that he went back out and fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth to complete his tremendous outing. The eight innings were a career high for the rookie (2-2, 2.05 ERA in five starts), who held the heavy-hitting Braves to four hits and two runs on 85 pitches.
Staring down the barrel of perhaps the most potent offense in the Major Leagues, Tolle hardly blinked, other than on a couple of fierce swings by Drake Baldwin, who accounted for both Atlanta runs on a leadoff homer and an RBI single.
“It was a lot of fun. Being able to go out there and let the defense do what they do. It's fun to give up what I think is a hit and Ceddanne Rafaela is sitting underneath the baseball,” said Tolle. “That's fun. But everybody out there did a great job, so it was a lot of fun.”
However, it was Contreras who allowed the clubhouse to feel like a fun place after the game.
For Contreras, it was a sweet way to break out of a slump that included seven hits in his previous 24 at-bats with just one RBI until that rocket to left.
“For me, it’s like a relief feeling. It’s like, finally I’m able to have that swing to help the team even more so how the last few weeks are going,” Contreras said.
Contreras was down in the count 1-2 and mauled a slider by Bryce Elder a Statcast-projected 426 feet for his ninth homer of the season, causing a long-awaited eruption in the Boston dugout.
The Sox had scored 10 runs over their previous six games, losing four of them.
Losing the game after the clutch homer by Contreras would have been a sour pill to swallow for the 19-26 Red Sox, who have been grasping for any kind of momentum since the season started.
In fact, there was a considerable scare in the bottom of the ninth.
After dominant closer Aroldis Chapman easily disposed of the first two hitters he faced, Austin Riley hit a routine grounder to shortstop Andruw Monasterio, playing because Trevor Story went on the 10-day injured list with a sports hernia earlier in the day. Monasterio air-mailed the throw over the head of Contreras.
The Braves had life. And Chapman suddenly lost his control, walking the next two batters on eight pitches. With Ha-Seong Kim down in the count 0-2, Chapman fired a 98.1 mph sinker. Kim got a good piece with an exit velocity of 103.9 mph.
The same dugout that had erupted not long before on the homer by Contreras were now gasping as the ball struck Chapman on the left ankle. The big man fell on his back, then gathered himself and raced to get the ball down the line, and flipped it to -- fittingly -- Contreras for out No. 27.
“What was going through my mind was, ‘Chapman, please just make the out.’ But yeah, a great play even with the ball hitting him that hard, coming off to the line, him going to the line and making the throw, from that angle,” said Contreras. “It’s not an easy play to make.”
So far, not much of anything has come to these Red Sox. But perhaps this one tense victory will help push them forward.