Xander Bogaerts has been in Boston for 10 years, but there’s just something about Target Field he seemingly enjoys.
The Red Sox beat the Twins, 6-5, on Wednesday night to break a three-game losing streak and avoid a sweep. Bogaerts put the Red Sox ahead with a third-inning grand slam. J.D. Martinez followed up with a solo home run, but it was Bogaerts’ grand slam that brought him a number of accolades.
The grand slam was Bogaerts’ sixth of his career and puts him ahead of Nomar Garciaparra and Vern Stephens for most home runs by a Red Sox shortstop in franchise history, according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long. Bogaerts also extended his hitting streak at Target Field to 19, which is the longest for an opposing player in the park’s history, according to NESN in-game coverage.
“It’s crazy,” Bogaerts told NESN’s Jahmai Webster when told about his franchise achievement, as seen on the network’s postgame coverage. “I’ve been here for a while. I’ve done a lot of good stuff. I’ve been through rough, also. I really appreciate it when stuff is going good and you achieve stuff like that because you can’t go back in time, and this is really, truly special for me and all the hard work I’ve put in.”
On his hitting streak at Target Field, Bogaerts added: “I’ll tell you a story. I had brand new cleats. I forget what year this was, ’15 or ’14. It was brand new. I was the only guy that had the cleats. Used it for a three- or four-game series, no hits, took the cleats, threw it in the dumpster and never used it again and ever since then, I’ve been playing pretty good here.”
The Boston shortstop’s accolades didn’t stop there. Bogaerts also made Major League Baseball history as his dinger traveled 113 mph, the hardest hit home run of the Statcast era, which dates back to 2015. The Red Sox shortstop finished Wednesday night 2-for-4 at the plate with five RBIs and one walk.
“We needed that one,” manager Alex Cora told reporters on the grand slam, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s been a grind offensively for a while, and to get a big hit like that with one swing, score four, it was huge.”
Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Red Sox-Twins game:
— Wednesday was the 25th time Bogaerts and Martinez homered in the same game — the first time in 2022. They are one of 16 Red Sox duos to homer in the same game 25 or more times. Dwight Evans and Jim Rice hold the franchise record (56 times), followed by Ortiz and Manny (48 times), according to Long.
— Bogaerts’ grand slam was the first for the Red Sox since they had four in the month of May.
— The Red Sox moved to .500 (20-20) in one-run games after Wednesday night’s win, according to NESN’s postgame coverage.
— Boston scored five runs in the third inning. It was its biggest inning since Aug. 19 when they scored five in the fifth inning against Baltimore Orioles, where they lost, 15-10. Their last inning with more than five runs was May 24, when they scored six runs in the sixth inning against the Chicago White Sox.
— Michael Wacha has been efficient in the month of August. He is 4-0 with a 2.19 ERA, along with 26 strikeouts and only four walks, according to Long.
— The Red Sox will look for two wins in a row as they return to Fenway Park to take on the Texas Rangers on Thursday. First pitch for the beginning of the four-game set is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage of the game, along with pregame, using NESN 360.
