Alex Cora wasn’t one bit worried about what’s become a rare occurrence for his Boston Red Sox, an offensive dud in Wednesday’s loss.
The Red Sox were creating tons of traffic on the bases and producing plenty of quality at-bats, but just couldn’t find the big hit.
On Thursday, they returned to their scheduled programming. As did Trevor Story.
Story drove in four runs as he continued his blistering month of May, Alex Verdugo had a four-hit game — including two doubles — as the Red Sox started hot and cruised to a 16-7 victory over the Chicago White Sox in another rout, their second 16-run, 19-hit performance in the series.
The win clinched the Red Sox’s fourth consecutive series victory as they took two out of three from Chicago. With a 21-23 record, they have a prime chance to get above .500 by this time next week, as they return home for seven games against last-place teams — five vs. the Baltimore Orioles this weekend before two with the Cincinnati Reds.
The takeaways:
1. Story still can’t be contained
The Red Sox second baseman’s wild turnaround this month is reaching levels of absurdity. After hitting an RBI single in the first, Story hit a three-run homer in the second inning as the Red Sox jumped on White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel to a 6-0 lead.
Entering May 10, as Story’s struggles to start the year put him under the Mendoza line after the Red Sox were swept at home by the White Sox, he still didn’t have any home runs and just 10 RBI to his name. In 15 games since, he has nine home runs and 27 RBI, including seven homers and 21 RBI in his last seven games.
Story now has 37 RBI this season – including 32 in May – which ranks second in the American League.
“A few weeks ago, everybody was getting on him because of the way he was struggling,” Cora told reporters in Chicago. “Now, this is the player that we envisioned.”
Story’s run of seven homers in seven games is the sixth such stretch in Red Sox history, with the last one coming via David Ortiz in 2006. Story told reporters in Chicago that this streak is reminiscent of his debut in 2016, when he hit seven homers in his first six career games.
“Times like this are rare,” Story said. “That’s really the only other stretch that I can say is pretty similar to this. Great feelings about that time, but just trying to just live in the moment and have good at-bats when I can.”
Story has a good chance to be the American League’s Player of the Month, but he’ll have competition from his own teammate. J.D. Martinez continued his torrid stretch with another three-hit game Thursday, and he’s now hitting .443 this month, including .568 (21-for-37) in his last nine games. He leads the majors with a .380 average.
2. The Red Sox’s supporting cast is continuing to rake
The days of Martinez, Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts being the Red Sox’s sole offensive run producers are long gone. In fact, though that trio accounted for six of the team’s 18 hits, none of them recorded an RBI in Thursday’s blowout. For the second time in three games, every Red Sox starter had at least one hit.
Also for the second time in three games, Kike Hernandez opened the game with a home run. Two nights after driving the first pitch out, he crushed Keuchel’s second pitch to left, and it seemed to be contagious again.
The Red Sox put the game out of reach in the eighth with a five-run surge, all with two outs. Christian Vazquez continued his recent tear with an RBI knock, Bobby Dalbec finally joined the party with an RBI single, and two scored when White Sox pitcher Bennett Souza airmailed a throw to first on a routine grounder from Jackie Bradley Jr.
It might be easy to forget that Verdugo was the Red Sox’s best hitter through the first two weeks of the season before going through a tough stretch, as hard-hit balls were consistently not finding their way to hits. But after four hits, including two doubles, Thursday – his third multi-hit game in his last eight – it’s starting to turn around for him.
“He’s been swinging the bat well,” Cora said. “I know the results aren’t there, but if you look under the hood, you see everything that he’s doing, hitting the ball hard. His expected batting average or OPS or whatever, all the cool stuff is out there. So it’s just a matter of keeping him under control. Don’t look at the results, stay with the process and that was a great night for him.”
3. Michael Wacha had his worst start of the season
The Red Sox starter carried a sub-two ERA into Thursday before he gave up five earned runs – all against Andrew Vaughan, who hit a three-run double and a two-run homer – but it wasn’t cause for concern with the offensive’s performance and the bullpen shutting things down behind him.
John Schreiber continued to be a revelation out of the bullpen as he pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with two strikeouts. He has still yet to give up an earned run through 12 innings of work.
It didn’t matter to the game’s result, but Matt Barnes took a major step back. Pitching in a nine-run game in the eighth, the right-hander recorded just one out before walking four consecutive batters.
