*Photo from the Boston Globe*
The Red Sox, losers of their last 4 games, needed a win by any means necessary. They sure got one. Alex Verdugo homered, Martin Perez threw 5 scoreless innings, and the Boston Red Sox shut out the Tampa Bay Rays by a 5-0 score on Wednesday night. Perez got into some trouble, but routinely finagled his way out with speed and precision accuracy.
After 3 scoreless innings, the Red Sox got on the board in the 4th when Verdugo hit a towering two run homer to right field for his first homer in a Red Sox uniform to make it 2-0. The rest of their damage came in the 6th inning, when Christian Vazquez laced an RBI single into left field, and Michael Chavis obliterated a two run homer to left center field to make it 5-0, which held for the rest of the game.
Perez threw 5 scoreless innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4 hitters to improve to 2-1 on the season. Manager Ron Roenicke said of Perez's outing that he did a "good job, especially when some guys got on base, he made some really good pitches. Did a great job putting up five zeros.'' Colten Brewer, Austin Brice, Matt Barnes, and Brandon Workman pitched in relief of Perez.
Verdugo has had a good history against lefty pitching, hitting .330 against lefties since the start of the 2019 season. Roenicke said of Verdugo's early homer ''That was big, it just doesn't seem like we have leads at all. So to get a lead there early, and Martin threw up a couple more zeros, was huge.'' Verdugo, who has been trying to convince Roenicke to give him more playing time against lefties, certainly helped his case.
Ryan Yarbrough started and took the loss for the Rays, throwing 5 innings, not being able to get an out in the 6th. He gave up all 5 runs on 8 hits and one walk, striking out 5 hitters. Yarbrough said of his performance postgame that ''Those first five innings, it was one of those days I don't think I had one clean inning, it's still a battle for the most part, trying to get in and out of jams. That sixth inning, it kind of escalated quickly. Frustrating to have those first five innings and give your team a chance to win and not helping yourself in the sixth.''
The Rays as a whole have struggled against lefty pitching this season, going 0-5 when a lefty starts for their opponent. Manager Kevin Cash said of his team's latest disappointing performance that ''We wish we had an answer, we need to get going, need to kind of turn it around sooner or later. Martin, we've faced him enough times and had a fairly solid approach, put him in the hole a couple of times, but the big hit just eluded us.''
After a day off on Thursday, the Red Sox return home to face the Toronto Blue Jays for a 3 game series over the weekend. Ryan Weber will get the start for the first game on Friday night. The Rays also have a day off on Thursday to prepare for a weekend series against the New York Yankees, where lefty Blake Snell will start the first game.
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