BOSTON — Held without a grand slam through all of 2017, the Red Sox have burst the dam on that particular hitting category through the first full month of this season.


 


Xander Bogaerts brought an end to an historic April with his second grand slam of the year in the bottom of the third inning on Monday night, part of a 10-6 victory over the Royals. Bogaerts started the party on April 7 against the Rays and finished it during an eight-pitch at-bat against Jason [...]

Bill Koch

BOSTON — Held without a grand slam through all of 2017, the Red Sox have burst the dam on that particular hitting category through the first full month of this season.

 

Xander Bogaerts brought an end to an historic April with his second grand slam of the year in the bottom of the third inning on Monday night, part of a 10-6 victory over the Royals. Bogaerts started the party on April 7 against the Rays and finished it during an eight-pitch at-bat against Jason Hammel, launching an inside fastball 430 feet toward Kenmore Square.

 

“He threw me two sliders — a ball that I took, then he threw me another one and I fouled it,” Bogaerts said. “I knew he was coming in at some point and I just wanted to be ready if he came in. And he did.”

 

Boston hitters combined for 168 home runs last season, a number that ranked dead last in the American League. No Red Sox player hit more than the 24 driven by Mookie Betts. Boston entered Tuesday's games locked in a three-way tie for eighth in the league, tied with the Orioles and Astros at 32. But its timing has been impeccable, to say the least.

 

“It just happens,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “I didn’t even know that they didn’t hit grand slams last year. It was a good lineup — guys that could hit the ball out of the ballpark.”

 

Count Bogaerts among them, but the shortstop was hampered by a right wrist injury over the last three months last year. J.D. Martinez was busy mashing 45 home runs between the Tigers and Diamondbacks. Rafael Devers didn’t make his major-league debut until late July, a 20-year-old rookie who homered just twice over his final 38 games.

 

“It was nice to get out there and put a few runs up and kind of get back to our ways a bit after the last few games having to scrap and claw,” said Mitch Moreland, who belted a grand slam of his own in an April 20 victory at Oakland. “To put up a couple of crooked numbers and have some big innings was nice.”

 

Signing Martinez and welcoming back a healthy Bogaerts lengthens the lineup, one that remained absent Betts (right hamstring tightness) for the second straight night on Monday. Despite that, it was still the top of the order that started a two-out rally in the third, with Andrew Benintendi singling, Hanley Ramirez doubling and Martinez and Moreland drawing back-to-back walks. Up stepped Bogaerts in just his third game back from a left ankle injury that sent him to the disabled list after a red-hot start.

 

“We’re getting some good swings,” Bogaerts said. “I’m in a 3-2 count right there and I really don’t think he wants to walk me after he already walked two guys.”

 

Only the 1996 Expos had managed six grand slams before May 1, with the Red Sox tying the mark on the final possible day. The Mets were the last team to hit six grand slams in a calendar month, doing so in July 2006. The Red Sox are already more than halfway to the club record of 11 struck in 2005, and they had 134 more games entering Tuesday to break it.

 

Cora made 92 plate appearances with the bases loaded in his career, knocking three doubles and a triple to account for his only extra-base hits. He was also hit by a pitch five times to collect a handful of painful RBI. Clearing the wall wasn’t something he was able to accomplish, and he jokingly deflected any credit for Boston’s sudden outbreak in the clutch.

 

“It’s not because of me,” Cora said. “Good pitches to hit and driving them, I guess.”

 

-- bkoch@providencejournal.com

 

On Twitter: @BillKoch25