The Boston Red Sox have won eight of their last nine games, but things weren’t always looking promising Friday night.
Although the Red Sox beat the Toronto Blues Jays 7-5 with a 10th-inning walk-off homer from Christian Vazquez, it came after the Red Sox trailed by four runs twice in the game, even as late as the seventh inning. Chris Sale, meanwhile, delivered an underwhelming outing as a fourth win of the season eluded him, alling four runs (three earned) on seven hits over five innings.
But in the midst of Sale’s tough outing, Sox manager Alex Cora had a message for the ace. Sale revealed said message when discussing the momentum from the team’s successful road trip.
“It was big. Especially, we picked up some momentum on the road trip,” Sale told reporters, via WEEI.com. “Played really well the entire time, lost a tough one. Coming here, continuing that and good vibes and keep it rolling, getting the first win of the series, you know, picking me up. That was big. I put us in a pretty bad hole early on I think AC tapped me I think after the third or fourth inning and was like, ‘we’re going to win this game’. We just kind of feel it.”
All last season, Cora made his mark by pushing the right buttons at pretty much every turn. Appropriately, two of the biggest hits in the game came from players who started on the bench in Rafael Devers and Vazquez, a sign that Cora made the right call.
With that all said, it appears the Red Sox truly are getting back on track.
