BOSTON — The Red Sox were encouraged by a better month of May that put them within sniffing distance of the three-team wild card race, but even as they finally emerged to become one of the best offenses in baseball, inconsistency as a whole followed them.
They know plenty of work remains if they want to be a playoff contender.
“What we did the first month of the season still counts,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Wednesday. “And so we’re going to have to do this for a while longer to really jump in this thing where we want to be.”
How they started June was an important step forward.
There may be no must-wins in June, but the Red Sox simply couldn’t be swept at home by the rebuilding Reds. A night after their bats and defense cost them, the Red Sox rebounded the way they should. Fueled by a four-run burst in the fourth inning and backed by a strong start from Garrett Whitlock, the Red Sox ended a disappointing homestand on a high note with a 7-1 victory.
The Red Sox improved to 24-27 and now head west for a 10-game road trip starting Friday in Oakland.
The takeaways:
1. The offense came to life in the fourth.
The Red Sox’ bats confusingly fell flat after a five-homer binge on Sunday, as they scored one run in their last two losses. On Tuesday, it started out looking like more of the same, as Reds rookie phenom Hunter Greene dazzled in his first three innings, striking out seven Red Sox and flashing a 100 mph fastball to go along with a nasty slider. He was easily fooling Sox hitters the first time through the order, but not so much the second time.
The Sox had scored just one run in their previous 21 innings entering the fourth, when they finally strung together some hits, ignited by the heart of their order. Rafael Devers – who last season was overwhelmed by fastballs – smoked a 100 mph heater from Greene to start the rally. J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts each followed with singles to make it 1-0.
Alex Verdugo, who’s been snake bitten by hard contact this season, finally got some results that he deserved when he cracked a Greene changeup to the right-center field gap for a two-run double, his first of two doubles on the night.
Greene recorded his eighth strikeout of the night by punching out Trevor Story before he induced Christian Vazquez into a groundout, but after Jackie Bradley Jr. laced an RBI single up the middle, his night was over.
2. Garrett Whitlock was effective, but his velocity was down.
Whitlock has gone through some growing pains since becoming a full-time Red Sox starter and looked better in allowing just one run over six innings in Wednesday’s win. But he did so in a different way. He didn’t strike anyone out.
It was the first time Whitlock didn’t strike anyone out in a start this season. He allowed four hits and no walks in an efficient 70 pitches. But was something off? The hard-throwing righty’s velocity was down on each of his three pitches. His fastball averaged 93.6 mph, down from his season-long average of 93.6 mph.
Instead, Whitlock was a ground ball machine. He gave up one-out singles in the first, second and fifth innings, but induced inning-ending double play balls on each of them.
