Well, it appears the lineup changes made by manager Alex Cora paid dividends for the Boston Red Sox.
And it didn’t take long to prove just that as the Red Sox scored eight runs on three homers in the first inning of Monday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The insane start was kicked off by none other than Jarren Duran, who belted the first home run of his career with Kiké Hernández on and nobody out. Duran gave Boston a 2-0 lead.
Hunter Renfroe then stepped to the plate with bases loaded and unleashed a a 403-foot grand slam to extend Boston’s lead to 6-0. Renfroe’s blast scored Rafael Devers, J.D. Martinez and Alex Verdugo.
And after that it was leadoff man Hernández, batting for the second time in the inning. He proceeded to put an exclamation of it with a two-out, 434-foot blast to score Kevin Plawecki. It gave Boston a 8-0 advantage before recording three outs.
Cora said before the game he wasn’t concerned about Boston’s recent struggles at the plate, and it appeared it was the correct mindset. But the lineup change made to highlight Rafael Devers and Martinez, as Cora noted, seems to have impacted many others in a positive way.
