BOSTON — The first week of the season hadn’t been ideal for Xander Bogaerts.
The star shortstop and the Red Sox couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension, fueling speculation about his future. A hamstring injury suffered on opening day came and then Bogaerts went on a bit of an early-season slump.
But on Saturday, Bogaerts looked like himself again.
The shortstop — at least for a day — put any lingering frustration away, hitting a no-doubt two-run home run to help lift the Red Sox to their best win of the young season. Alex Verdugo launched another homer, and Tanner Houck produced a strong performance from the mound as the Sox secured their first home victory of the season, a 4-0 win over the Twins.
There was no reason to fret over Bogaerts’ struggles to start the season. Alex Cora reinforced Friday that slumps are magnified early on in a 162-game marathon.
But there’s no doubt Bogaerts’ swing in the third inning felt good. He confirmed it by adding some swagger to it.
The Red Sox led 2-0 when Bogaerts stepped to the dish, two batters after Kiké Hernandez hit a one-out double. The second pitch of the at-bat was an inside fastball off the plate from Josh Winder, but Bogaerts was all over it. He knew it was gone off the barrel of his bat, which he proceeded to flip as the ball sailed over the Green Monster and smacked off the National Car Rental sign.
Bogaerts had just two hits in his previous 19 at-bats — which included nine strikeouts — since injuring his hamstring injury in New York on opening day, a game he went 3 for 5 in a loss. He’ll certainly hope Saturday is the start of something good.
Bogaerts carried that momentum to the field, too, where he flashed some leather. In the fifth inning, after Trevor Larnach hit a leadoff single, Bogaerts stabbed a grounder up the middle off the bat of Gio Urshela, and flipped it with his glove to Trevor Story, who turned it to first for the pretty double play.
Bogaerts’ performance represented a strong all-around effort by the Red Sox, who got another big swing from Verdugo. The left fielder continued his sizzling start to the season with his second homer in two days, when he launched a second-inning offering from Sonny Gray, depositing it 437 feet to right field. It was his team-leading third homer through the first eight games of the season.
That’s all the Red Sox ultimately needed. Houck had trouble with command early, as he fell behind in the count against nine of the first 10 Twins batters he faced. He walked three, and just 50 of his 89 pitches were strikes. But it didn’t come back to bite him as he completed 5 2/3 shutout innings.
Houck looked better with his splitter, which he threw 13 times and generated two swings and misses. He ended his outing shaky, walking Luis Arraez on four pitches, but walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the crowd at Fenway.
Matt Strahm was used as a bridge to Garrett Whitlock, who continued his dominance early this season in preserving late Red Sox leads with multiple-inning performances. He recorded the final seven Red Sox outs, striking out five Twins to complete the victory.
