CHICAGO – Saturday night turned out to be a very different glove story for the Red Sox.
This time, when the pressure was at its peak, manager Alex Cora’s team arrived with a strong defense that made possible an exciting 9-8 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
In the fourth inning, Rafael Devers rushed in and turned a possible end-of-entry double play into a costly mistake that caused the White Sox to score five unbeaten runs to tie the game. It seemed like recent history was about to repeat itself.
Just five days earlier, a series of defensive errors caused a 7-1 lead to collapse in a tough 11-10 defeat against the Lightning.
But not this time, the Red Sox said.
With two starts at the end of the 10th and the tie tying at third base, Brian Goodwin placed a ground in the second base hole that looked like it was going to sneak in for once. But Kiké Hernández escaped to attack him and then shot towards first place, where rookie Bobby Dalbec made a tremendous stretch to corral the exciting final.
“Yeah, I thought there was a chance it would happen once Bobby was overtaken, and then Kiké made a great play on it and Bobby made a great play to pick up the pitch,” left-back Josh Taylor said. “Around, it was a good defensive execution there in the last inning.”
Alex Verdugo, the culprit in some of those tough last-home defensive plays, ran back to sixth place on the wall in the center against Goodwin.
Team leader Xander Bogaerts was playing his second game after losing eight due to a positive test of COVID-19, he rushed to the center to make a brilliant dive stop to make a shot of distance to Cesar Hernández to open the bottom of the ninth.
What did victory tell Cora about his team?
“That when we play in defense we become a very good team. In the second half of the game we played a great defense, “said Cora.” We were in a bad place without turning a ground ball into an exit and they came back. “They will continue to play and continue to play. That is the conclusion.”
In the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak that began on Aug. 27 and continued through Saturday (Danny Santana’s reserve tested positive just hours before the game), the Red Sox have managed to stay there, passing 8-7 in the last 15 games.
In this battle for survival in the standings, Boston could be weathering the storm.
The A and Mariners are two games away from Toronto and New York for the second slot. The stretch has to be fierce, with five teams grouped in two places.
“You know, it’s difficult right now, we’re not playing [all of] our boys right now, ”Taylor said. “We are still finding ways to keep the games close. Right now we are in a good place and we just have to keep going. Do we have, what, 18 more games? We have to keep winning games and keep them close and, once we get our boys back, we will be fully strong.
Part of the wear and tear has put different players on pressurized roles. That was the case for Taylor on Saturday, as he was asked to protect an advantage from a run in the 10th, which is never easy with the automatic runner.
It was an obvious ambition of Yasmani Grandal to use their ability at attacking on the flanks.
Still, Taylor deepened and stuck the tie tying getting two bouts of attack and then that outstanding part of a play on the right side of the field to win his first career.
“It was stimulating, to say the least,” Taylor said. “It was amazing. You get into these situations and you get that extra tick you didn’t think you had. I just felt like I could do my throws tonight. “
While the bullring, led by two major innings from winning pitcher Garrett Whitlock (1.81 ERA), and the defense, took center stage in the final innings, the offense made strength in this game.
That, thanks in large part to Travis Shaw, who was only in the lineup because JD Martinez (back) was a late scratch for the second day in a row. Shaw sank for a three-run rocket during a third seven-run inning that left out White Sox starter Dylan Cease. And on the 10th, he came up with the simple RBI on the right that definitely put Boston off.
“I try to be ready in case something like this happens,” Shaw said. “You never know when this might happen, especially at the end of the year. The boys are grinding their bodies a bit, so I was ready and, luckily, I had a good night ”.
All in all, it turned out to be a really good night for the Red Sox when, at one point, it looked like it would be the opposite.