It seemed like it was going to be another one of those frustrating days.
The Red Sox squandered a few early scoring chances, let the Brewers hang around, and eventually gave up the lead after Kaleb Ort walked three in the seventh and allowed the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch. Given how good Milwaukee’s bullpen has been you’d have been forgiven for flipping over to the Bruins game, because clearly this one was over.
If that was you Sunday, well, you missed a lot.
Justin Turner and Masataka Yoshida wasted no time flipping the script, hitting back-to-back home runs in the top of the eighth to tie the game and take the lead. That sparked what wound up being a nine-run rally, as the Red Sox sent 12 runners to the plate and Yoshida delivered the dagger with a towering grand slam his second time up.
That was more than enough breathing room for the bullpen, who closed out the 12-5 win to clinch Boston’s third straight series win, it’s second against a first-place club.
The late offensive explosion was a jarring shift after what had largely been a nip and tuck series, and yet another encouraging sign from a club that’s shown it can hold its own against some of the better teams in the league.
“We’re going to grind until you tell us the game is over,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “We’ve been doing this the whole season, 21 or 22 games, I don’t want to say this is who we are but it seems like this is who we are.”
Early on it looked like the Red Sox might have a chance to deliver an early knockout, taking a quick 1-0 lead in the first after Alex Verdugo made a great slide to beat the tag at home on a Yoshida sacrifice fly, and then added two more in the second.
Former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes did not have his best stuff, and Boston had a chance to chase him in the second after loading the bases with no outs. But the club couldn’t get the big hit, scoring on a walk and a Rafael Devers sacrifice fly, during which Connor Wong got caught in no-man’s land between second and third and was tagged out to end the inning.
Burnes settled down from there and wound up allowing just the three runs over five innings.
Meanwhile, Brayan Bello looked sharper than in his season debut last Monday but ran out of gas as his pitch count climbed. The second-year righty held the Brewers scoreless the first three innings and allowed a solo home run in an otherwise efficient fourth, but came out with two outs in the fifth after allowing three hits and the game-tying sacrifice fly to make it 3-3.
All told Bello allowed three runs over 4.2 innings, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out three.
Richard Bleier kept the Brewers from taking the lead, striking out Red Sox killer Rowdy Tellez to end the fifth, and followed that with a scoreless sixth before passing the baton to Ort, who was needed in the higher leverage situation with Chris Martin and Joely Rodriguez both on the injured list and Kutter Crawford and Josh Winckowski both down after long outings earlier in the weekend.
Despite his struggles he still got out of the inning with a pop out and a ground out to limit the damage, and then the offense went to work.
Yoshida, who had been a groundout machine most of his first three weeks in the majors, appears to have really found his groove. The Japanese standout is now 7 for his last 17 (.411) with nine RBI over the past four games, and with his two home runs in the eighth he became the first Red Sox player with multiple home runs in an inning since David Ortiz hit two in the first against the Texas Rangers on Aug. 12, 2008.
After the game Yoshida said Turner’s leadoff home run really lifted the team’s spirit, and coming in he’d spent a lot of time working to get out of his early season funk.
“I talked to the hitting coach a lot to find my good form,” Yoshida told NESN’s Jahmai Webster via translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi. “And then on that one I was just focused on my swing.”
Yoshida was also one of five Red Sox players to record two hits on Sunday. Kiké Hernández went 2 for 5 with a pair of doubles and the bottom three hitters in the order, Jarren Duran, Connor Wong and Yu Chang, combined to go 5 for 14.
With the win the Red Sox are now 12-11 and 7-2 in their last nine games, and the club hopes to carry that momentum into this week’s three-game set in Baltimore (14-7). Chris Sale (1-1, 8.00 ERA) will get the ball Monday against Dean Kremer (1-0, 6.16), first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
