“It’s total team effort here,” Cora said. “It’s not about a one-man show or whatever. Everybody contributes.”
Then came the events of Thursday afternoon’s 3-2 win over the Orioles, which perfectly backed Cora’s statement as a capper to a stirring, 7-1 road trip. Per Elias, it was the first road trip of less than nine games in club history that Boston notched as many as seven victories.
On a day ace Garrett Crochet grinded — by his standards at least — his teammates had his back.
Rob Refsnyder, a platoon player who specializes in crushing lefties, returned from the 10-day injured list as if he never left, coming through with hits in his first two at-bats against O’s southpaw starter Cade Povich, the latter a solo homer to center that staked Crochet to a 2-1 lead.
It was Refnsyder’s first time seeing live pitching since Aug. 15, the final game he played before being shut down with a left oblique strain.
“Good rehab stint,” quipped Refsnyder. “No, we have great athletic trainers, strength coaches. And they were just working really hard behind the scenes to get me healthy and feel comfortable enough to play and strong enough to play.”
In 114 plate appearances against lefties this season, Refsnyder has a line of .302/.395/.563.
“Like I said before the game, we actually have been struggling against lefties the last few weeks,” said Cora. “And one of the reasons is not having him in the lineup. He put a great at bat together right away, and we needed that. He’s healthy and he’s going to help us.”
When Crochet couldn’t quite hold the lead in the fifth, Romy Gonzalez, another role player, eventually got it back for him in the eighth.
Like Refsnyder, Gonzalez is known for hammering lefties. But with the left-handed-hitting Nate Lowe on his first day of paternity leave, Gonzalez stayed in the game to face righty reliever Rico Garcia and came through with a two-out RBI single that scored rally-starter Roman Anthony from second.
“Whatever it takes to win,” said Gonzalez. “We’ve been rolling with such a good road trip. I haven’t been swinging it too well the past couple of weeks but we’ve been winning, so that’s all that matters.”
In between Refsnyder’s seventh homer and Gonzalez’s 40th RBI was a great escape by Crochet that included a huge play by shortstop Trevor Story to end the fifth inning.
When Jeremiah Jackson’s RBI double tied it up against Crochet, the O’s had second and third with nobody out and the dangerous Gunnar Henderson at the plate.
Crochet struck out Henderson with a nasty sweeper on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Up stepped Ryan Mountcastle who hit a line drive that Story snared out of the air on a dive and doubled up Jackson Holliday, who strayed too far off third.
Story was playing in, which forced him to rely on his reaction time.
“You just have to anticipate,” said Story. “And I think being ready, almost treating it like a third baseman, like it’s the hot corner, get low even a little earlier because they might hit a hot shot at me.”
It was Story who pushed the Red Sox to a quick lead with his 22nd homer, a solo shot, with two outs in the first. And it was also Story who fielded a grounder in the ninth and reacted quickly to Dylan Carlson’s odd choice to try to advance from second, firing to third for the out that took the potential tying run out of scoring position.
“I was joking when he was coming in that it was the Trevor Story game today because there in the ninth, too, he made another great play,” said Crochet.
For once, it wasn’t what you would call “The Crochet game.” The lefty was still largely effective, scattering six hits over his six innings, allowing two hits, walking none and striking out seven. He did hit two batters and threw 98 pitches, 67 of them for strikes.
Aroldis Chapman, arguably the most dominant closer in the game this season, got a day of rest. No worries for these 75-60 Red Sox, who always seem to have a next man up. Lefty Steven Matz came on for the final three outs to earn the save.
No one man show was this, and Boston will come home to face the Pirates and ace Paul Skenes on Friday with a surge of momentum.
