Nathan Eovaldi gave the Boston Red Sox exactly what they needed Monday. And when that wasn’t enough, Rafael Devers got the job done with a walk-off.
And it’s a good thing, because in a 2-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, they didn’t get much else until a ninth inning rally from the offense.
Eovaldi pitched into the seventh inning and kept Toronto scoreless to help tie the four-game series and give a struggling starting rotation some momentum. A RBI single from Devers and a strong relief performance from Josh Taylor helped the Red Sox come within one out of a win, even after Matt Barnes gave up a tying homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr in the ninth.
Good thing for Devers, though.
With that, the Red Sox break a two-game losing streak and improve to 40-27 on the season. Here’s how it all went down.
GAME IN A WORD
Refreshing.
Boston hadn’t had a great start from its top pitchers since Eovaldi’s outing against the New York Yankees on June 4. Another solid start took two times through the rotation.
ON THE BUMP
— A lot was riding on a great start from Eovaldi, and he delivered.
Eovaldi went into the seventh inning, ultimately pitching 6 2/3 innings. He gave up just three hits and held Toronto scoreless, walking one and striking out four. He left the game with a 1-0 lead, but two runners on after throwing 55 of his 81 pitches for strikes.
— Josh Taylor came into a high-leverage situation and managed to get the Red Sox out of the seventh inning without allowing any of Eovaldi’s runners to score. He struck out Rowdy Tellez for the final out.
Taylor came back out for the eighth and pitched a 1-2-3 inning, ultimately recording three strikeouts in his outing and throwing 11 of 15 pitches for strikes.
— Matt Barnes came in to close out the ninth, striking out two straight before giving up a game-tying homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He recorded another strikeout for the third of the inning, but the damage was done.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Marwin González got Boston going in the third inning with a hard-hit infield single that he ran out even harder. González, though, was thrown out at second on to a fielders choice by Kiké Hernández. Hernández later scored after a RBI double by Alex Verdugo to make it 1-0.
González was the only member of the Red Sox to put up a multi-hit performance.
— It was do-or-die in the ninth (unless anyone wanted extras) and Verdugo and J.D. Martinez hit consecutive singles to lead off the ninth. Bogaerts flew out to left, but that set up Devers for a single and the winning RBI.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Alex Cora mentioned Red Sox pitchers need to be better early in games as to not dig themselves into early holes. Hopefully Eovaldi can right the ship from here.
UP NEXT
Boston hits the road for a two-game series against the Atlanta Braves before three-game sets against the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays.
First pitch against the Braves on Tuesday is set for 7:20 p.m. ET on NESN.
