BOSTON — Once elusive, wins like the one on Tuesday are starting to look routine for the Red Sox.
Nick Pivetta cruised in another masterful outing, the Red Sox’s defense continued its dominance behind him and their heavy hitters provided the big hits against an inexperienced major leaguer. Fresh off their eight-win West Coast road trip, the Red Sox returned home and picked up where they left off. Powered by home runs from J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers, the Red Sox opened their nine-game homestand with a convincing 6-1 victory over the Oakland A’s.
The Red Sox have now won 10 of their last 12 as they continue to take advantage of an easy part of their schedule, with all of those games coming against sub-.500 teams.
The takeaways:
1. Devers delivers the dagger
Devers was the hero of Sunday’s road trip capper, when his two-run homer in the eighth inning led them to a 2-0 victory over the Mariners. The superstar picked up where he left off in his return to Fenway.
The Red Sox led 3-0 in the fourth and had two men on with no outs after Franchy Cordero and Rob Refsnyder opened the inning with singles when Devers came to the plate. But after a couple of tough at-bats against Jared Koenig — who was making his second career start — Devers was all over a sinker down and in and pulverized it to right for a 439-foot shot.
Devers’ three-run homer — his 15th blast of the season — was ultimately decisive as the Red Sox crushed Koenig, who they smoked for six runs on nine hits over four innings. Martinez hit his third homer in four games after a long homer drought, and the top four spots of the Red Sox lineup combined for seven hits in the victory.
2. Refsnyder continues to spark the Sox
Rob Refsnyder might be here to stay, even after Kiké Hernandez returns from the injured list.
Refsnyder, who flew out to Seattle to finish the West Coast trip over the weekend, has made a big impact in his short stint on both sides of the ball, both offensively and defensively. The center fielder went 3 for 4 on Tuesday — his first three-hit game since last May — which were all singles, including the one that set up Devers’ three-run homer.
On defense, Refsnyder made another web gem. Two days after his diving catch robbed Ty France in the eighth inning of Sunday’s win — which was a huge play in the 2-0 victory — he was at it again in center field. In the sixth inning, Ramon Laureano drove a pitch to the warning track in center, where Refsnyder leapt for an impressive grab.
It was another overall impressive defensive night for the Red Sox, especially from their infield. Devers made a few good plays on the run, and Xander Bogaerts made a tough play in the eighth, when he nabbed Jonah Bride’s grounder deep in the hole before firing a throw to first, where Bobby Dalbec made a nice pick.
3. Pivetta goes deep again
Pivetta continued to look the part as one of the Red Sox’ best starters, as he flushed out a frustrating performance last week in Los Angeles — when he threw a season-high 11 strikeouts but was out-pitched by Shohei Ohtani — with eight innings on Tuesday. He gave up just one run, which was a solo homer to Stephen Vogt in the eighth.
Pivetta is the first Red Sox pitcher since Chris Sale to have multiple starts of eight innings or more in the season, which also includes his complete game in May against the Astros. He’s thrown at least six innings in six of his last seven starts.
