Red Sox Notes: Tyler O’Neill’s Blast Helping Put Slump Behind Slugger
Tyler O’Neill’s hot streak to begin the season wasn’t going to last forever. Neither was the slump the Red Sox outfielder has been in at the plate in the month of May.
O’Neill entered Monday’s matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park hitting just .143 with no home runs and one RBI over his last 10 games. He struck out in 18 of his last 35 at-bats, too.
But O’Neill showed signs of an offensive turnaround in a 5-3 loss to the Rays. He accounted for all of Boston’s offense when he smacked a three-run home run 426 feet over the Green Monster off Rays starter Zach Eflin in the bottom of the first inning.
The homer had to wash away some of the bad feelings O’Neill recently had at the plate.
“I’ve still been barreling the ball, but just frustrated. Keep yanking it foul,” O’Neill told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “So, really trying to set my sights on the bigger part of the field and use the whole field. I feel like I was doing a better job of that today. Put some better swings on it today. That’s the whole point is making sure my bat’s hitting the ball went it’s supposed to. It’s good progress for me, so just got to continue that work.”
O’Neill has been a main source of power for Boston this season as he leads the Red Sox with 10 homers — the next closest is Triston Casas with six. But O’Neill’s round-trippers have seldom come with runners on base, lessening their impact. According to the Boston Herald’s Mac Cerullo, eight of O’Neill’s 10 homers have been solo shots and his blast Monday was his first of the campaign with more than one runner on base.
Delivering with runners on and two outs was much-needed for the Red Sox and O’Neill, who finished the night 1-for-3 with a walk. And it just might get him and the Red Sox offense going in the right direction again.
“Those are situations that I want,” O’Neill said. “Obviously, I’m coming up a little short lately. It’s been on my mind a little bit. But for me, it’s about sticking to the process, a lot of at-bats coming. I just want to make sure I’m in good position to put a good swing on a ball when I get up to hit, make sure I’m controlling the strike zone.”
Here are more notes from Monday’s Red Sox-Rays game:
— The Red Sox are 0-4 against the American League East this season. The Red Sox had a combined 50-78 record against divisional foes the previous two seasons. The Red Sox have particularly struggled against the Rays, having lost 12-of-14 matchups since the start of the 2023 season.
— Kutter Crawford found a way to give the Red Sox six solid innings after giving up three runs in the top of the first. He settled in nicely and allowed four runs on seven hits to go along with one walk and six strikeouts. He threw 70 of his 101 pitches for strikes. Crawford has now gone at least six innings in five straight starts.
“Obviously, last year there was a lot of five-inning outings,” Crawford told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “And I want to be a starting pitcher in this league and starting pitchers need to go six and they need to be relied on every five days. That was one of my focuses coming into the season is obviously try to eat up more innings and stay as healthy as I can and throw the ball every five days.”
— Red Sox reliever Greg Weissert got his first real game action in more than a week — he threw two pitches to get one out in an outing against the Atlanta Braves last Tuesday. The crafty right-handed pitcher couldn’t keep Boston’s deficit to a single run in the eighth inning as he surrendered one run on three hits with one walk and two strikeouts in two innings.
“We’re going to use him in different situations,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “We knew coming into this game that there was going to be probably two innings for him because of where we were in the bullpen. And I know they score there in the eighth, but overall his stuff was really good.”
— The Red Sox and Rays continue their four-game set Tuesday. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.