Red Sox Notes: Christian Arroyo ‘Speechless’ After Milestone Night

The Boston Red Sox entered Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins with momentum on their side, and they maintained it.

Keeping the pendulum swinging in its favor, Boston continued to pile on the offensive pressure in order to keep opponents from climbing back. However, this time the Red Sox leaned on infielder Christian Arroyo, who wasn’t even in the original starting lineup before first pitch, to deliver a career-best night at the plate in order to push their win streak to six games.

Arroyo went 5-for-5, recording his first-career five-hit performance and fell just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. He also totaled four RBIs.

“I’m kind of speechless, never done that before,” Arroyo said following Boston’s 10-4 win, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think I maybe hit one in the minor leagues but never in the big leagues. This is the biggest stage, right? So every hitter dreams of that. It was awesome. It was great.”

The 28-year-old was inserted into the lineup just prior to game time after Pablo Reyes was removed due to right abdominal soreness — a move that massively worked in Boston’s favor.

And Arroyo’s approach at the plate was much to Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s liking.

“He did a good job and he’s a good player,” Cora said, per NESN. “… We don’t wanna take the aggressiveness out of the approach, but at the same time, he can put an at-bat together and that’s something I’ve been talking to him throughout the days.”

Arroyo has had to remain patient, hampered early on this season by a right hamstring injury, which initially placed Arroyo on the 10-day injured list but kept him sidelined for nearly a month. Nevertheless, ready when needed, Arroyo’s patience was rewarded, to say the least, in yet another dominant Red Sox win.

Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Twins game:

— The Red Sox have recorded 30 two-out RBIs in the last five games played.

— Kutter Crawford, who made the start and held the Twins scoreless through five innings, has been dominant when pitching on the road this season. The right-hander has pitched to a 2.01 ERA over the course of 22 1/3 innings in seven away games, including three starts.

“I’m confident in my ability,” Crawford said regarding his feeling about fulfilling a starting role for the Red Sox, per NESN. “Just gotta get back into the groove of things. I did it for a good stretch last year, that helps build the confidence. So it’s just getting back to that. Getting back to using my mix like I should, as a starter.”

— Alex Verdugo, who went 1-for-5, extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Through the stretch, Verdugo is batting .375 with five doubles, one triple and seven RBIs, also notching a .944 OPS.

— Reyes was initially slated to bat ninth and play shortstop before being removed shortly ahead of Tuesday night’s game. Cora provided a brief update on the utility infielder afterward.

“We’ll just wait and day-to-day,” Cora revealed. “We’ll just see what happens.”

— Boston has outscored its opponents, 44-15, in its last five games.

— The Red Sox and Twins play their third of four games Wednesday night. First pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.