The Red Sox outfield continued its completely dominant play in the grass Monday, and it was a major factor in Boston's 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
Boston centerfielder Kiké Hernández robbed what would have been a two-run home run in the second inning. Danny Santana, who replaced Marwin Gonzalez in left field after the second inning, recorded an assist after his throw to the plate in the fifth inning. And then it was back to Hernández, who recorded yet another Red Sox assist on a throw from right-center to second base in the sixth inning.
At the time of the throw by Hernández, the Red Sox had nine more outfield assists than any other team in Major League Baseball. Boston has 28 assists on the season.
Red Sox left-hander Martín Pérez, who benefited from each of the three plays en route to his seventh win of the season, was grateful for the contributions.
"Amazing, man. They've been saving a lot of runs for us and that's great," Pérez said during a postgame video conference. "We have the kind of guys that are going to make a lot of plays every time we go out there and pitch, so that puts you in another level. That happened to me (Monday).
"Kiké, he made two good plays and that was a key thing to win the game."
Here are more notes from Red Sox-Angels on Monday:
-- And while the outfield assists go largely to the credit of the outfielders themselves, manager Alex Cora wanted to show catcher Christian Vázquez some love.
"First things first by the way, Christian Vázquez, what he did in Oakland and what he did (Monday), we haven't talked about him ... What an amazing job," Cora said. "I haven't talked about him in a while, so what a job he's done, too."
-- Pérez came away with another efficient start as he went 5 1/3 innings while allowing just two runs on eight hits.
"That's what you need to do," Pérez said when asked about his ability to limit the damage despite allowing baserunners. "Give up hits and then just try to go pitch by pitch and try to get out of innings. So, great outing."
It was the seventh win of the season for Pérez.
-- Adam Ottavino faced quite the dramatic situation during the ninth inning before picking up his seventh save.
Ottavino walked the lead-off man, who eventually came around to score and cut the Angels deficit to one run. The right-hander then was put in the situation he admitted he was hoping to avoid -- going up against Shohei Ohtani with the game on the line.
"I was trying to avoid that ever getting to that point, you know, I had it in the back of my mind like, 'Don't let Ohtani come up,' but of course it happens. But in the moment I'm just ready for battle. It's a fun situation."
It probably wouldn't have been as fun if Ottavino didn't get Ohtani to ground into the shift with second baseman Christian Arroyo playing in the right field grass. Arroyo stayed down on the hard-hit ball and threw to first for the game's final out.
-- Marwin Gonzalez was pulled from the game after the second inning due to right hamstring tightness.
Cora revealed the Red Sox utility man felt it as he ran from first to second on a Bobby Dalbec single in the second. Gonzalez ultimately ended up scoring from second base later in the inning, but he didn't run well on the play.
"Hopefully it's not an (injured list) thing. Hopefully he's ready, probably (Tuesday) we'll stay away from him, but maybe the next day or when we get home on Friday," Cora said.
-- Chris Sale will throw a live bullpen in Fort Myers, Fla., on Tuesday. Cora expects it will be two innings.
-- Ohtani will pitch against the Red Sox during Tuesday's game, which is scheduled to begin at 9:38 p.m. ET.
