Red Sox break out against Sean Manaea to avoid sweep from A’s

It was a little more than three years ago when the Red Sox’ dominant start to the 2018 season was quieted for a night, as Sean Manaea no-hit them in Oakland.

So, it was only right that the Red Sox’ dominant offense broke out of its brief funk against Manaea.

A three-game cold spell at the plate was put to bed early Thursday, as the Red Sox were relentless against Manaea and cruised to an 8-1 victory at Fenway Park, avoiding a three-game sweep from the A’s.

Manaea’s performance mirrored more of his previous three starts in Boston instead of that no-hitter in 2018.

After scoring just four runs over their previous three games, the Red Sox regained their footing as the league’s best offense, as their 13 hits matched their total from the previous three games combined. And it took just four batters to come to the plate for them to even their run total from the first two games against the A’s after Xander Bogaerts’ two-run blast off Manaea smacked against the left-field foul pole to give the Red Sox a 3-0 lead in the first.

The Red Sox clearly weren’t worried about how the week had gone up to Thursday. J.D. Martinez said all great offenses go through these stretches. Alex Cora instilled confidence in what he described as a great offense, but he knew the entire lineup — not just the top of the order that has been carrying the offense for most of the season — needed to pick up the slack.

They seemed to take it to heart. Bobby Dalbec, who sat for the first two games of the A’s series as he continued to slump, returned with a bang, crushing a two-run shot that went 432 feet to dead center. That started another three-spot in the second inning. Bogaerts capped it with an RBI double as he rebounded well from a frustrating performance on Wednesday.

Manaea’s night wasn’t long after that. He surrendered three consecutive singles to begin the third before he was mercifully pulled to finish another maddening night for him against the Red Sox. He was charged with seven earned runs on 10 hits, as Fenway Park continued to be his personal house of horrors. In four starts there, he’s lasted a total of 14 1/3 innings with 39 hits and 25 earned runs allowed, a disastrous 15.96 ERA.

Other takeaways from Thursday’s win:

— Michael Chavis is playing like someone who doesn’t want to go back to Worcester. Cora gave him a start for the third consecutive night, this time in the leadoff spot, and the second baseman rewarded the faith of his manager. Chavis set the tone in the first as he led off with a hustle double to center before running hard to score the game’s first run on Martinez’s RBI single.

In the sixth, Chavis continued to play with urgency even in a lopsided game. He ran hard out of the box on a hit down the right-field line and charged to second for another hustle double before eventually scoring another run.

— The A’s apparently didn’t learn not to run on Hunter Renfroe. A night after his amazing throw from center hosed down Matt Chapman at third base, he started another highlight-reel play on Thursday.

With Sean Murphy at first and two outs, Mark Canha hit a double to right, and Murphy tried hustling home. But from deep in right, Renfroe made a perfect throw to cutoff man Jonathan Arauz, who then threw a strike to the plate as Christian Vazquez swiped him out for the inning-ending play to preserve what was still a shutout.

— Garrett Richards had another stellar outing, pitching six scoreless innings and striking out four. The only real jam came in the fifth, when he loaded the bases with one out. But he escaped it as he induced Chapman into an inning-ending double play. In his last four starts, Richards is 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3uNpTGC