Red Sox flash encouraging identity shift in chaotic win at Anaheim
In a game that felt like a sure-fire backbreaking loss, the Boston Red Sox buckled down to win their fifth straight -- open season 6-2.
If you closed your eyes and listened to the middle innings of Friday’s game, you’d have sworn a re-play of the 2023 Boston Red Sox.
They had a comfortable lead, and their starter was cruising, but they suffered an injury and the defense went into freefall. A hop, skip and a jump later, a 5-1 lead turned into a 5-5 tie.
The difference? They rallied around each other and pulled back ahead 6-5 and then again 8-6 en route to their fifth win in a row, giving them a 6-2 record in 2024.
It’s still early in the season, but this isn’t the first game you can point to and say, “They lose this one in prior seasons.” Everything was riding high before getting blitzed by adversity: Trevor Story hurt his shoulder diving for a ball, the sure-handed Ceddanne Rafaela dropped a routine fly ball and second baseman Enmanuel Valdez dropped a throw (that didn’t bounce) on a force play, thus helping set up the game-tying grand slam by Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora alluded as much in his postgame scrum. Simply put, they lose this ballgame last season.
“We didn’t stop playing,” Cora told reporters after the game. “We talk about last year, and where we were in August — it’s not that we stopped playing but we didn’t compete … Regardless of the hit-by-pitches and the walks and the errors, we kept competing (Friday).”
The game started with a bang for Boston. After the teams traded zeroes in the first, the Red Sox clubbed three second-inning home runs — solos from Tyler O’Neill (third of 2024) and Triston Casas (first), with the big blow coming on the two-run shot from Reese McGuire (first).
They carried that 4-0 lead into the fourth inning when Story made a Herculean effort to rob Angels star outfielder Mike Trout of a single. A blink later he was on the ground writhing in pain after putting his entire body weight on his left shoulder.
“We’ll have [imaging done Saturday],” Story said postgame. “Not trying to put any words on it yet because we don’t know for sure … It all happened so fast.”
The flaws that proved fatal in 2023 trickled into 2024 after that. Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford breezed through four innings before losing all command of the strike zone in the fifth. He walked three batters, gave up a single, and left the game to Greg Weissert with two outs and the bases loaded for Trout.
Weissert buckled down and got the future Hall of Famer to fly out, but disaster struck an inning later with Josh Winckowski on the mound.
Rafaela and Valdez made errors on consecutive routine plays before Winckowski hit Miguel Sano. After getting Mickey Moniak to softly pop out to third, O’Hoppe hit the grand slam.
Sano burned the Red Sox again in the bottom of the seventh for a game-tying single off of Chris Martin, whose scoreless outings streak snapped at 25 consecutive.
However, in the top of the eighth, Jarren Duran chose a great time for his first extra-base hit of the season. Coming into play, the outfielder was hitting .393 with a .393 slugging percentage — and was 1-for-4 with an RBI single already. He took a belt-high 99 mph fastball from Jose Soriano and drilled it over the center field wall.
The Red Sox entered Friday with four homers as a team. Duran’s game-winning swing was their fourth of the night. O’Neill added his second of the night an inning later before closer Kenley Jansen slammed the door shut with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
Again, while the season is eight games young, the Red Sox have already won multiple games that last year’s team likely didn’t. Their 6-2 record matches their best start to a season since the historic 2018 campaign.
Who knows, maybe they’re better positioned than initially expected …
Red Sox' Vaughn Grissom 'dominating' pitchers during rehab in Florida; could he replace Trevor Story at shortstop in the short term?
Follow Jordan on X @JordanLeandre55
For additional Red Sox and Major League Baseball content, follow Beyond the Monster: Boston Red Sox on X BeyondtheMnstr
No. He is a tolerable second baseman but shortstop is beyond him.