The Boston Red Sox evened their five-game series 2-2 against the Baltimore Orioles with a win on Sunday at Fenway Park by a final score of 12-2.
The offense was homer happy, belting five long balls in the contest, all coming within the first four innings. They added five doubles on the day, bringing their extra-base hit total to 10, a season high. Boston had 15 hits total, and walked five times, scoring in five of the nine frames with three multi-run innings. It was the third double-digit scoring effort in the last week for the Red Sox offense.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora was pleased with the effort.
"We did an outstanding job offensively today," Cora said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "The bottom of the lineup was outstanding. You know, (Christian) Arroyo, Bobby (Dalbec), Franchy (Cordero) and obviously the big boys did their thing.
"The quality of at-bats were all the way to the end. Knowing what happened a few days ago, they kept adding on and putting pressure on them, and we have a chance to win this series tomorrow."
While the offense hasn't been consistently overpowering -- they scored two runs on Saturday night, and only one run last Wednesday -- Cora believes the offense is where it needs to be moving forward.
"They're feeling good about themselves," Cora said. "It started in Atlanta, right. And we've been doing damage in the zone too. We've been doing a good job of using the whole field. We're supposed to hit.
"The line is moving, now it's just cashing in with runners in scoring position. And when we do that, we know we'll score a lot of runs."
Following the win, first baseman Bobby Dalbec mentioned what the plan was headed into the game.
"We were just trying to get them up," Dalbec told NESN's Jahmai Webster, as seen on the network's postgame coverage. "Put a good swing on a good pitch and just not try to do too much against them."
The strategy was sound, as the bottom third of Boston's lineup combined for six hits and six runs batted in for Boston. Cora is liking what he's seeing from that group.
"Franchy, Bobby, (had) better at-bats the last few days," Cora said. "We believe they're going to contribute. They've put in the work and now they're doing an outstanding job out there."
Here are some more notes from Red Sox-Orioles:
-- Boston's set a new season high with five home runs Sunday, surpassing the previous high of three.
-- Tanner Houck continued his hot stretch out of the bullpen, needing just 14 pitches to record six outs in relief of Nick Pivetta. Houck has allowed just one earned run in 11 innings since returning to the bullpen.
-- The Red Sox are averaging 8.5 runs over the last week.
-- All 11 players who came to bat for Boston reach base, with nine of them recording at least one hit.
-- Boston batted around in the eighth inning, scoring five runs.
-- J.D. Martinez has an MLB best .379 batting average after a 2-for-4 night with a walk and one RBI.
-- The Red Sox will complete their five-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on Memorial Day at Fenway Park. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET on NESN following an hour of pregame coverage.
