There was an unusual sight inside Fenway Park on Wednesday night during the Boston Red Sox’s 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
With the Tigers up to bat in the top of the seventh inning, fans started holding up cell phone lights in the outfield, with some spectators flashing the lights on their phone.
It certainly was a bit of a distraction, and after Niko Goodrum struck out for the second out of the inning, on deck hitter Nicholas Castellanos griped to the umpire about the distraction. Given many of the fans were sitting in dead center field, presumably the argument was over the lights being a batter’s eye distraction.
After the game, Sox manager Alex Cora was chock full of jokes when asked about the ordeal.
“In basketball games and volleyball games back home,” Cora said when asked if he’d ever seen something like that before. “That’s pretty good, that’s a good weapon, smart fans.
“We didn’t, they did,” Cora said of complaining about the lights. “I bet it’s tough because the batter’s eye here is different than other places, but we should have a sign for that one.”
After the lights came to a stop, the Tigers proceeded to load the bases. And while reliever Matt Barnes was able to escape the inning unscathed, after being asked what the umpires told him, Cora still managed to weave in one more joke about the lights maybe helping the Sox.
“To see if there’s any way we can make it stop,” Cora said. “I think the security guards, they saw it right away and they asked them to stop and they did. All the sudden we have bases loaded.”
It was a bizarre fiasco, but it didn’t appear to perturb the Sox skipper.
Here are some other notes from Red Sox-Tigers:
—Â As the Red Sox crushed the ball to begin the season, Andrew Benintendi was off to a bit of a slow start.
That since has changed, and the left fielder has added yet another spot in the Sox lineup for pitchers to worry about.
Benintendi went 2-for-5 with an RBI double and solo home run Wednesday. And though he wasn’t even the Sox’s best performer on the night, it was the continuation of a promising trend spanning weeks for the lefty. He’s hitting .377 in the last 20 games with five doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 22 RBIs.
— Eduardo Rodriguez has continued to be a stable presence for the Red Sox this season, upping his record to 7-1 this campaign by tallying his fourth straight win. The Red Sox are 11-1 when Rodriguez starts this season.
Though he has struggled with pitch efficiency, which has impeded him from going too deep into games, he still is valuable when he is on the hill. In Wednesday’s outing, he allowed one run on five hits over 5 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out five.
— Christian Vazquez has joined Sandy Leon as Sox backstops who have been mashing a bit as of late.
After hitting a home run in Sunday’s win against the Houston Astros, Vazquez turned in another tremendous performance, going 3-for-4 with a solo home run and double in Wednesday’s win.
— Sam Travis made his first start of the season, serving as the designated hitter in the sixth spot. He went 1-for-4 with an RBI single in the eighth inning, and now has three RBIs in two games.
— Jalen Beeks will make his MLB debut Thursday, getting the start in place of injured lefty Drew Pomeranz. In order to make Beeks’ call-up official, Cora noted the Sox will option Bobby Poyner back to Triple-A Pawtucket.
