If only the Red Sox could play like this in Boston.
They were relentless again Saturday night, besting the Mariners 5-1 in Seattle to clinch the weekend’s series, which will conclude Sunday afternoon.
The Red Sox built a strong all-around victory on a combined eight hitless innings between Connelly Early (after the bottom of the first), and relievers Tyron Guerrero, Garrett Whitlock and Danny Coulombe, a big blast from Wilyer Abreu, and some savvy situational hitting from the rest of the lineup.
Emerson Hancock’s Saturday night began much like Ranger Suarez’s Friday night. The Red Sox lefty maintained a perfect game until one out in the fourth, the Mariners righty did so until Anthony Seigler led off the fourth with a single.
Seigler’s knock was the first of just six hits by the Red Sox in the game. They drew four walks, struck out 11 times, and were 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position and five men left on base. But they did more than enough between Abreu’s go-ahead home run in the fourth and a three-run combined effort in the sixth.
“We’ve been battling,” Abreu told NESN’s Jahmai Webster on the field postgame.
Abreu displayed power and patience, going 1 for 2 with two runs, two RBI and a walk. His 414-foot blast put Boston on the board and in the lead with his two-run homer in the fourth, and with one out in the sixth, he worked an eight-pitch at-bat for a walk and scored the first of three runs in the inning.
The Red Sox knocked Hancock out of the game in the sixth by loading the bases on a one-out single by Masataka Yoshida and back-to-back walks by Abreu and Willson Contreras. Lefty Jose Ferrer inherited a mess he couldn’t clean up. The Mariners initially prevented damage – first baseman Josh Naylor threw Jarren Duran’s groundball home to catcher Cal Raleigh to prevent the run scoring – but then the inning got away. Abreu scored on a wild pitch, while Contreras and Duran advanced to third and second, respectively.
Batting with two outs and two men on scoring position, Caleb Durbin turned in one of his best at-bats of the season. Ferrer worked a quick 0-2 count by getting the Red Sox third baseman to swing and miss at a pair of sinkers, but had no luck finishing the at-bat with the preferred pitch. Durbin fouled off the next two sinkers, stayed away from the fifth sinker and a slider for two balls, fouled off the sixth sinker, and watched a changeup go by to fill up the count. Ferrer’s ninth and 10th pitches were yet two more sinkers, and the latter became an RBI single that shortstop Colt Emerson couldn’t curtail.
Marcelo Mayer made quicker work against Ferrer’s sinker, turning the second one he saw into yet another RBI single.
Early turned in his deepest and cleanest start of June. The rookie left-hander held the Mariners to one earned run on two hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts, on 98 pitches (57 for strikes). Saturday marked Early’s first game without a home run allowed since May 27 and just the third time in 13 starts dating back to April 10. He hit three batters, though, including two in the sixth inning. Early was tired by then; overall his four-seam fastball velocity averaged 94.8 mph, a 1.0 mph increase from his 93.8 year average, but none of his final four fastballs in the sixth reached 93 mph.
The Mariners managed two hits in the contest, none after the bottom of the first.
The Red Sox are 31-43, but Saturday’s win improved their road record to 19-18.