WASHINGTON — For a week, the offense had mostly gone into hibernation, and it was threatening to make winter come early for the Red Sox.
But on Friday night, Hunter Renfroe broke the seal when he mashed a three-run homer to center with one out in the sixth inning, fueling Boston to a huge, 4-2 victory over the Nationals.
By winning for just the second time in their last seven games, the Red Sox pulled within a game of the Yankees for the top American League Wild Card spot and assured they would at least stay tied with the Mariners for the second spot, pending the outcome of the Angels-Mariners game in Seattle late on Friday.
The Blue Jays downed the Orioles, staying a game behind Boston.
All this pennant-race drama with just two games left in the regular season.
“You win, then you look around and see where we’re at,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “We’ve got one job to do and it’s to win ballgames. Obviously what’s going on, you see it all over the place. You’re locked in on your game, of course, but you know what’s going on around the league.”
For the Red Sox, the most important thing was that they took care of their own business, making it more likely their season will stretch beyond Sunday.
After Eduardo Rodriguez, who had a gritty performance to pick up the win in what was possibly his last regular-season appearance for Boston, struck out the ever-dangerous Juan Soto on an eight-pitch at-bat to end the fifth, the Red Sox finally generated a rally that led to something.
It started in an important way as Xander Bogaerts, who had just two hits in his previous 24 at-bats, raked a single to open the sixth. With one out, J.D. Martinez, who has warmed up the past few days, knocked a single to left.
That set up Renfroe, who mauled a 2-2, center-cut fastball at 106-mph off his bat and a projected distance of 423 feet.
“It felt good,” said Renfroe. “I missed the first two pitches that I really should’ve hit hard. He [Josh Rogers] left a fastball over the middle part of the plate there. I was able to get a good barrel on it, and the right degree of angle.”
Bobby Dalbec made it back-to-back jacks when he hammered a first-pitch slider over the wall in left-center.
Finally, the Red Sox could breathe again.
“I mean, everybody was jumping around,” said Rodriguez. “So that’s how big it was. Right now, every run we score, we’re gonna be happy. We’re gonna jump [around] the dugout. That’s how it was in that situation. Every time we score a run, you guys are gonna see us jumping around all over the place. That was really, really, really cool and special to be out there.”
Give credit to Cora, who went to a unique outfield alignment in the National League park so he could keep his big right-handed bats in the lineup against the left-handed Rogers.
Cora joked with a college football comparison that he was going “Boise State” and prioritizing offense over defense. Kyle Schwarber started in left, with Renfroe playing center and Martinez playing right. That allowed Dalbec to stay in the lineup at first base.
Martinez, not known for his defense, came up with a huge assist, gunning a strike to third to nail Soto to end the bottom of the seventh.
As big as the sixth-inning outburst was by the offense, the performance by Rodriguez was just as significant.
The veteran lefty fired five scoreless innings (plus two batters in the sixth), walking three and striking out six. In the fourth, he wiggled out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam.
And Kiké Hernández was a big reason why. With the “big guys” playing the outfield, as Cora put it before the game, Hernández moved to second base. On that final play of the fourth, Andrew Stevenson hit a little tapper that Hernández charged, barehanded and shoveled to first, where Dalbec made a strong scoop and stretch to get the team back to the dugout with the game still scoreless.
“That’s a Gold Glove play right there,” said Rodriguez. “That’s everything I can say right there. That’s a Gold Glove play. After I saw the ground ball, I know the guy is really fast, so I’m really just thinking, ‘He can make the play,’ and he made the play. That’s something you don’t see every day.”
The game remained stressful to the final pitch, as Keibert Ruiz came up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth as the potential winning run. But Hansel Robles completed the high-wire act save by inducing a flyout to right to end it, giving the Red Sox some momentum going into Saturday.
“It’s fun, but it’s not fun. It’s stressful, but it’s not stressful,” said Cora. “Of course you really want it in a different way so you can breathe and get ready for next week like some of the teams that have clinched already. But this is where we at. We’ve got to take advantage of every day. Not too many teams can say they’re still in the hunt. So you just try to enjoy as much as possible, but you’ve got to get locked in for tomorrow.”
