Red Sox Finally End Frustrating Power Drought: ‘Wally Was Getting Lonely’
The Boston Red Sox got back on track during their 7-0 road win against the Athletics on Monday, both on the mound and at the plate.
On the mound, Garrett Crochet was in Cy Young form, rebounding from his worst start of the season with one of his best (seven scoreless innings, 10 strikeouts).
Meanwhile, the Red Sox gave him plenty of run support, scoring seven runs on 12 hits. Two of those balls left the yard, marking Boston’s first home runs since last Tuesday and snapping the club’s four-game homerless drought.
The Red Sox hadn’t gone deep since Roman Anthony went down with an oblique injury, batting just .222 with no home runs and a .563 OPS in their first four games without him. They immediately broke out of that slump on Monday with Trevor Story’s first-inning solo shot off Luis Morales.
Carlos Narvaez later homered as well, giving Boston a chance to finally use its Wally the Green Monster head again.
“We feel like we’ve come close but it hasn’t been much damage lately,” Story said after the game via MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “We feel like Wally was getting lonely. We were feeding him in Arizona and I guess it paid off today.”
The Red Sox haven’t been a huge long ball team this year, ranking 13th in the Major Leagues with 171 homers — four more than the MLB average. It also hasn’t helped that several of their top hitters are currently injured, including Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Marcelo Mayer and Triston Casas.
However, Boston was bound to snap out of its funk at Sutter Health Park, which has been the second-most hitter-friendly stadium in MLB this year behind only Coors Field, according to Statcast. The Athletics also have one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball with the fourth-highest ERA (4.81) in MLB.
The Red Sox have now scored seven runs in back-to-back games and will try to stay hot on Tuesday against Jeffrey Springs, who’s 10-10 with a 4.13 ERA, a 4.68 FIP and 26 homers allowed in 157 innings this year.