MORELAND’S MONSTER SHOT: The first baseman’s second homer of the game gives the Red Sox a 5-3 walk-off win

BOSTON — The Red Sox couldn’t have scripted the bottom of the ninth inning any better on Sunday afternoon.

The majority of hitters in the Boston lineup seem to be struggling at the moment, but Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland aren’t among them.

Bogaerts drew a two-out walk and Moreland connected for the fourth walkoff home run of his career. This towering blast to the cardboard cutouts populating the Monster Seats gave the Red Sox a 5-3 victory and a [...]

BOSTON — The Red Sox couldn’t have scripted the bottom of the ninth inning any better on Sunday afternoon.

The majority of hitters in the Boston lineup seem to be struggling at the moment, but Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland aren’t among them.

Bogaerts drew a two-out walk and Moreland connected for the fourth walkoff home run of his career. This towering blast to the cardboard cutouts populating the Monster Seats gave the Red Sox a 5-3 victory and a series win over the Blue Jays.

Boston hitters were in a 1-for-21 funk and had struck out in 10 of their previous 18 at-bats when Bogaerts dug in against Thomas Hatch. The count went full and the shortstop took a slider down and away for ball four, setting the stage for Moreland. He picked on a first-pitch slider out over the plate and lost it to deep left-center.

"We’ve got a lot of great players here," Moreland said. "All of them at some point or another have done their part to step up and carry the team. It hasn’t just been one guy or the next."

Sunday also marked the 13th career multi-homer game for Moreland. He’s gone deep in five of his eight starts in 2020. The first baseman cracked a solo shot to straightaway center in the second inning to put the Red Sox on the board. Moreland’s pair of dingers accounted for half of Boston’s four hits.

"I think he won four of the first five games we won last year with big hits," Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said. "He does it. When he’s feeling this way, you want him up there as much as you can."

The Red Sox bullpen retired the final seven men it faced. Josh Osich, Austin Brice and Matt Barnes locked up the Blue Jays over the last three innings, combining to strike out five. Brice cleaned up for Osich in the seventh when he coaxed Bo Bichette into a fielder’s-choice grounder to short, stranding the potential go-ahead run.

"We’re not swinging the bat like I know we’re going to," Roenicke said. "We’ve pitched really well."

Nathan Eovaldi matched his career-high with 10 strikeouts, hitting double digits for the third time in 164 starts. He finished six innings on 91 pitches and induced eight of his 19 swings and misses with a particularly sharp curveball. Eovaldi was nicked for single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings, including a pair of solo homers.

"It’s one of those things that helps get the team rolling," Eovaldi said. "Nice walkoff win, guys out there celebrating. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it going tomorrow and get things going."

Cavan Biggio’s two-out blast to the Red Sox bullpen put the Blue Jays on the board and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lined an RBI single to center to make it a 2-2 game. Bichette led off Eovaldi’s final frame by ripping a first-pitch fastball to deep right-center, giving Toronto its first lead.

Boston pushed across three single runs of its own, but its offensive wastefulness was in evidence yet again under the warm sunshine. The Red Sox did not score with runners at the corners and nobody out in the third. They allowed Matt Shoemaker to survive a pair of his own errors and work through the sixth, striking out six against no walks.

Shoemaker’s wild throw into center field on what could have been a 1-6-3 bouncer by Alex Verdugo brought in Jackie Bradley Jr. to give Boston a 2-1 lead in the third. Rafael Devers followed by lining softly to center — too shallow for Tzu-Wei Lin to tag at third — and J.D. Martinez grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

Shoemaker had set down nine straight before running into Devers with one out in the sixth. He jumped all over the first pitch and sent a screamer to deep center, a solo home run that tied the game at 3-3. Devers knew it was gone on impact, a 449-foot rocket that exited his bat at 108 mph.

"We’re all trying to chip in and do our part," Devers said through translator Bryan Almonte. "If we can piece it all together, we’ll be able to win more games."

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25