Bill Koch

Friday

Aug 17, 2018 at 11:02 PM


BOSTON --- Had Brian Johnson been pitching for the Rays on Friday, his night would have come to a disappointing early end.


But the left-hander works for the Red Sox, and they actually strive to employ a true starting pitcher every time they take the field. Tampa Bay and its opener – the alternative strategy of using a relief pitcher in the first inning – would have made a lousy fit for Johnson, who only gained strength as his outing progressed.


The time bought [...]

BOSTON --- Had Brian Johnson been pitching for the Rays on Friday, his night would have come to a disappointing early end.

But the left-hander works for the Red Sox, and they actually strive to employ a true starting pitcher every time they take the field. Tampa Bay and its opener – the alternative strategy of using a relief pitcher in the first inning – would have made a lousy fit for Johnson, who only gained strength as his outing progressed.

The time bought for Boston’s offense was well utilized, as the Red Sox had the lead by the bottom of the fifth inning and never let go. It was a 7-3 victory over the Rays to open a seven-game home stand at sticky Fenway Park, with summer thunderstorms causing a 10-minute delay of the first pitch.

Effective work from Johnson required a longer wait, as five of the first six Tampa Bay hitters reached safely. Joey Wendle’s two-run double to right and an RBI single to left by Carlos Gomez staked the visitors to a 3-0 lead before Johnson dialed in, retiring 15 of the next 17 men he faced. The Rays landed just two more runners in scoring position over the final eight innings, managing just three more hits.

“There’s 27 outs,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We know offensively we can match up with anybody in the league.”

Johnson induced Kevin Kiermaier to pop to third, ending the first, and worked 1-2-3 frames in the second, third and fourth. He pitched around a one-out walk in the fifth and allowed the last of his five hits when Wendle stroked a two-out double to left in the sixth. Heath Hembree struck out pinch hitter Jake Bauers to leave the tying run aboard and turned things over to the back end of the Red Sox bullpen.

“For me, the curveball is what got me here,” Johnson said. “It’s what allows me to be successful here. Even though it’s not going well in the first inning, I’ve got to find it.”

Yonny Chirinos did the majority of the pitching on the night for Tampa Bay, but it was the hard-throwing Ryne Stanek who earned the start and surrendered the first two of Boston’s seven unanswered runs. Xander Bogaerts whacked a two-run triple to left center in the first, making it 3-2, and the Red Sox were about to resume normal service.

“Whenever you give up three and they score two, you can kind of feel the momentum come back into our dugout,” Johnson said. “That’s when you know you’ve just got to go out there and put up zeroes no matter how you can.”

Chirinos entered in the second and threw two scoreless frames before Boston chipped away at the right-hander. Eduardo Nunez grounded a single inside the bag at third to tie the game at 3-3 in the fourth and Mitch Moreland sent a bullet up the middle for an RBI single that gave the Red Sox a 4-3 lead in the fifth. Jackie Bradley Jr. scraped the Monster in left center with an RBI double in the sixth, making 5-3, and the Boston bullpen had a welcome cushion.

“It’s always a tough game with them,” Cora said. “We got to their opener and then we did a good job.”

Bogaerts provided a finishing touch to a damaging night at the plate in the seventh. Moreland skied a double to left and J.D. Martinez lined a single to left, pushing the lead to 6-3. Bogaerts put Martinez in position to add the extra point when he ripped a double to the corner in left, and a wild pitch eventually chased Martinez home.

“It doesn’t matter the score,” Bogaerts said. “It feels like the at-bats really start to get better once we’re down, because we know the urgency of coming back and putting some runs up.”

Bogaerts saw his season derailed against the Rays in 2017 when he was hit by a pitch on the right wrist. He’s more than paid Tampa Bay back through 14 games, rolling up 11 doubles, a triple, two homers and 14 RBI. The doubles total for Bogaerts against the Rays is the most by any player against any one team in 2018.

 

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25