Overall, the Red Sox are a middling homer-hitting team, their 182 long balls tied for 13th in the majors. The team leader is Trevor Story, who has 25. After that it’s Wilyer Abreu, who just spent a month on the injured list, stuck at 22. Rafael Devers, who hasn’t been on the team in more than three months, is still sixth with 15, one fewer than Jarren Duran.
With Roman Anthony hurt, Alex Bregman not slugging much lately, and Abreu and others looking for their groove, it’s even more true: The Sox are reliant on stringing together hits.
That is, as manager Alex Cora has said frequently, their reality. It is who they are. In some games, like this one, it works out great. In others, when the proverbial one big hit never comes, it dooms them.
“At the end of the day, in October, we can talk about moving guys over, all that stuff. If you look at the numbers, the teams that hit homers, they prevail,” Cora said before the game. “It’s hard to get three hits in a row. But where we’re at right now, getting on base, putting pressure on the opposition — I’m not saying we’re not going to hit them, but obviously, it’s not a lineup that is conducive to that.”
The Red Sox (86-71) have a one-game cushion over the Tigers, who are in the third AL wild-card spot. The Astros, who played late Tuesday, were the first team on the outside looking in, 1½ back of the Sox.
Justin Wilson, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, and Aroldis Chapman combined for 4⅓ hitless innings of relief.
Lucas Giolito teetered but never tottered, surviving 4⅔ innings and holding Toronto to just one run. He worked around three hits and four walks, plus a pair of errors from shortstop Trevor Story. As was the case last week against the Athletics, the velocity was down on all of his pitches.
The Blue Jays had one hit in five at-bats with runners in scoring position against him. And the hit didn’t even score a run.
Giolito didn’t yield a hit until his 71st pitch. But that came with no outs in the fourth inning. Nathan Lukes doubled to right-center, advanced to third on Davis Schneider’s single, and scored on Andrés Giménez’s ground out.
Giolito’s biggest escape job came in the second inning, with a pair of major assists from the umpires. He walked two batters, and Story’s missed catch error — on a would-be inning-ending flip from second baseman Romy Gonzalez for a force play — loaded the bases and brought up leadoff-hitting slugger George Springer.
Springer ripped a ground ball that seemingly bounced directly over the third base bag. But third base umpire Scott Barry ruled it foul, saving two runs for the Sox. When an incredulous Springer returned to the plate, he watched a slider that appeared to be off the outside edge of the plate. But home plate umpire Doug Eddings decided it was strike three, not ball three, to end the inning.
In the half-inning after Giolito’s departure, the Sox finally got Blue Jays righthander Kevin Gausman to crack. He looked dominant at times across 5⅔ innings but wound up allowing four runs, including three in a tie-breaking rally in the top of the sixth.
It began with the Red Sox stringing together three consecutive hits: Gonzalez double, Ceddanne Rafaela single, Nathaniel Lowe single, his second RBI knock of the night. Carlos Narváez came through with the big blow: a two-out, two-strike, two-run double.
The Sox have five games to go in the most wonderful — if stressful — time of the year.
“We’d all prefer having a much clearer picture of where things stand, but this is why you love sports,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said before the game. “This is why you play the game or are in the position that I am here. We’ve got a chance to control our own fate by playing good baseball over this stretch here.”