The Red Sox did it — they won a game. For the first time in a week, we can celebrate a Boston victory, and for the first time in the post-Rafael Devers era (tears), they’ve won one at Fenway. I think my highlight of Chris Bassitt’s relative dominance of the Red Sox was what they needed to be reminded of to break out of a nearly two-game scoreless streak, and I’m proud to keep calling them out if that’s what works!
Bassitt’s given Boston fits since even his time in Oakland, but jumped on him almost right away today to set the tone. After two quick outs to open the bottom of the first, back-to-back singles set up a three-run home run by Wilyer Abreu for his first long ball in exactly a month. The 35-pitch inning set Bassitt up for a rocky day, and the Red Sox continued to attack, plating three more runs with two outs in the second as Trevor Story joined in on the RBI action.
While we’re all smart enough to know that a 6-0 lead is never a guaranteed safety net for this team, Lucas Giolito continued his hot streak, giving up only one run (unearned) on an error (which he made) and a double in the third. This little quirk was just a reminder of how beautiful baseball truly is on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, because in what other sport would a mistake you made in the field not negatively affect your stats?
Roman Anthony continued to hit the ball hard, as always, and eventually got some results out of it, recording his first multi-hit game in the majors and having three balls with 100+ mph exit velocity. As a whole, seven strikeouts and six walks will definitely play for a team that struck out 10 times against Yusei Kikuchi (who has a 9.2 K9 this year) earlier this week. And Ceddanne Rafaela and Romy Gonzalez added onto the fun in the later innings, both launching a two-run homer to eventually cement the 14-run victory.
It’s been absolutely beautiful to watch Rafaela round out his approach much more this year, as he’s striking out a lot less, comparatively, and walking more than he ever has.
And what better way to cap off a big fat blowout than with a Gonzalez homer that went 446 feet for Boston’s longest long ball of the year and Chris Murphy’s return to the mound for the first time since September 2023.
Lucas Giolito is the best he’s ever been in a Red Sox jersey right now, and it’s beautiful to watch as he leans on location and soft contact rather than a strikeout-heavy approach that he would’ve relied on in the middle of his career. But still, he’s filling up the strike zone and not afraid to challenge people, and it’s something you hope can rub off on the rest of the staff.
While I’m all for a good offensive explosion, let’s try to pace ourselves a bit better over the course of this upcoming week, yeah?
Three studs
Everyone.
I could pick three offensive players, throw in Giolito and Murphy, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Congratulations to Murphy on a smooth return and easy closeout and to Giolito for his fourth consecutive quality start and second start of 7 IP this year. Story stole a base, got on base three times, and had a couple of defensive beauties while Anthony led all hitters with three hits (tied with Gonzalez).
Three duds
No one.
In a surprising turn of events, we had zero duds today, as every starter except for Jarren Duran got a hit, and even he scored two runs and got on base twice with a pair of walks.
Play of the game
Abreu hadn’t homered since May 28. He really needed that, and this Boston offense really needed him.