BOSTON — When James Paxton failed to pitch out of the fifth inning, the Boston Red Sox were in trouble. When Rafael Devers had to play shortstop for an inning, very little was going as planned. When Mookie Betts came to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth, hope hung by a thread.
But, somehow, the Red Sox held on and made it work.
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Over and over again, these Red Sox have provided ample reason to count them out, but every time it’s almost safe to give up on them completely, the Red Sox do just enough to keep some glimmer of hope alive. Saturday’s four-run sixth inning was one of those moments.
Adam Duvall’s go-ahead, three-run homer to the top of the Green Monster would have been a home run in only one other ballpark (Houston), but it was over the wall in Fenway Park, and suddenly the Red Sox had a lead and a chance. By the skin of their teeth, they held on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-5, setting up an opportunity to win this tough three-game series Sunday before the Astros — one of the teams they’re chasing for a wild-card spot — come to town for four games starting Monday.
It’s hard to give up on this team when yet another golden opportunity is right around the corner.
But they sure don’t make it easy.
“We got some games to catch up on and to put us in a spot to get to the playoffs,” Alex Verdugo said. “So, it’s just easy when you think of it that way. Every game is a must-win.”
Feel-good story Pablo Reyes was hurt on Saturday, and at one point it looked like Devers was seriously hurt, too. The Red Sox’s biggest strike might actually have been a ball, they had to close out the narrow win without their closer, and Betts — of all people — represented the go-ahead run with two outs in the ninth. It was dramatic. It was perilous. It was wild. But the Red Sox held on for their third win in their past four games and their 12th in the past 19. They still have to jump two teams to get a wild-card berth, and FanGraphs is giving them less than a 20 percent chance of doing it, but they’re not completely out of it yet. They keep finding ways to stay alive.
“We’re going to play games like this the rest of the way,” manager Alex Cora said. “It started a few weeks ago when we got swept by the Jays. We had to pick it up, and we did a good job for a while there.”
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Having already blown a late lead to lose Friday’s series opener, the Red Sox were in serious trouble halfway through Saturday’s game. Two former Dodgers had homered for them — Verdugo and Justin Turner, with Verdugo becoming just the third player in baseball history to hit a leadoff home run in three straight games — but still, the Red Sox were down by two when Reyes hurt his elbow on a fifth-inning swing and had to leave the game.
“He was in a lot of pain,” Cora said.
With Trevor Story in the lineup as the designated hitter — and with the Red Sox needing to score runs to get back in front — Cora chose to go with an unusual defensive alignment that had Devers at shortstop, Luis Urías at third, Connor Wong at second and Turner at first.
And it worked.
A half inning later, Duvall’s home run was the big blow in a four-run sixth that put the Red Sox back in front. Story also drew a walk, stole a base and scored on a two-out single by Reese McGuire in that inning (McGuire, technically, had replaced Reyes in the lineup). With a lead, Cora put Story in the field, moved Urías and Devers back to second and third, and just tried to keep the Dodgers at bay.
Which the Red Sox did, but just barely.
This is the weekend of Betts’ return to Boston, and the Dodgers superstar had three hits in the game, including an RBI single in the eighth. Betts was still on base with the bases loaded when Red Sox reliever (and former Dodgers setup man) Chris Martin entered and struck out Max Muncy to strand the bases loaded. Statcast’s pitch tracking showed the pitch low, and both Muncy and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts were ejected for arguing the call.
“Might have gotten a little help there,” Martin said.
In the bottom of the eighth, Devers was hit in the hand by an 0-2 fastball that had him doubled over in obvious pain — Cora came onto the field with obvious concern — but Devers stayed in and scored an insurance run on a Betts error at second base.
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With Kenley Jansen (yet another former Dodger) still dealing with a tight hamstring (he threw a simulated inning Saturday afternoon), the Red Sox used John Schreiber to close out the game. Schreiber walked David Peralta to load the bases with two outs for Betts, who hit a fly ball to deep center field, 101.4 mph off the bat, with an expected batting average of .580. But Fenway is deep to center, and Duvall said he knew he had it all the way.
“You can feel the energy in this place, especially this weekend,” Duvall said. “I think a lot of people were excited this weekend just with Mookie being back. The atmosphere has been great. These are the atmospheres you want to play in front of. It’s fun when everybody’s hanging on by each pitch and each out.”
Several Red Sox players called this weekend a playoff atmosphere, and it’s certainly felt that way. These days, the Red Sox’s season seems to hang in the balance with each at-bat, and so far they’ve managed to hang in there to give themselves a chance — a least a chance — to keep playing when the real playoff games begin.
(Photo of Justin Turner: Bob DeChiara / USA Today)