BOSTON — Wade Miley said after Tuesday’s game he wasn’t thinking about last week’s dugout shouting match with manager John Farrell. Now, most Red Sox fans aren’t, either.
Miley tossed 6 1/3 strong innings in his first start since last Thursday’s eventful evening in Baltimore, allowing two runs on five hits as Boston defeated the Atlanta Braves 9-4 at Fenway Park.
“I kind of put all that stuff behind me from last start,” the left-hander said after the game. “I just wanted to go out and try to give the team a chance to win.”
Miley did just that, employing a steady diet of fastballs and changeups to keep Atlanta’s bats at bay. The Braves scored twice in the fourth inning (despite getting just one hit in the frame) but failed to push a man past first base in the other five full innings Miley worked.
“Wade was strong,” Farrell said. “On a day we needed a quality start, he gave it to us.”
It also didn’t hurt that Miley’s start coincided with one of Boston’s best offensive efforts of the season. The Red Sox torched Braves pitching for 18 hits in the game, including three by center fielder Mookie Betts and four by second baseman Brock Holt, who became the first Sox player since 1996 to hit for the cycle.
“It’s always great to get the run support we got (Tuesday),” Miley said. “Brock Holt hitting for the cycle — it’s amazing, awesome to be a part of that. It was great. A great team win.”
Though Miley’s poor outings tend to be particularly unsightly — he’s lasted four or fewer innings in four of his five losses this season — he’s put together some excellent pitching performances of late. He’s allowed two or fewer runs in five of his last seven starts, winning each.
“(He was) great,” Betts said. “He’s always in the zone, always making them hit the ball, and he throws a lot of strikes. The quick pace. It’s always fun playing behind Wade. He’s a competitor, so you’ve always got to love that in a pitcher.”
When asked to expand on the southpaw’s oft-mentioned competitive nature, Betts said it’s one that extends beyond the mound.
“You just get a feeling,” Betts said. “He wants to go out there and compete. Whether it’s playing cards, he competes. Whatever it is — Rubik’s Cube, me and him compete. That’s just the type of person he is, and when he goes to the mound, you’re going to get everything he has.”
A competitor was exactly what the Red Sox needed Tuesday after slogging through arguably their worst week of the season. Boston had lost a season-high seven straight entering Game 2 of their four-game home-and-home series with the Braves and sat a full nine games out of first place in the American League East.
“I think it’s a very big win for us,” Miley said. “Hopefully, we can build off of this and move forward going into Atlanta. Any win’s a big win, but especially after going (through) what we just went through — the losing streak, or whatever. But it is what it is. It’s over. It’s behind us. We can’t do nothing about that. We’ve just got to move forward.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
