Turner’s presence, bat spark 6-run burst vs. Rays
BOSTON — This dreary, chilly Saturday at Fenway wasn’t what the late, nice Ernie Banks envisioned when he stated, “Let’s play two!”
But the Red Sox warmed up their followers with a stirring six-run rally within the backside of the sixth to show the tables on the Majors’ finest staff, the Tampa Bay Rays.
Justin Turner‘s two-out, three-run double off the Green Monster was the go-ahead hit and the Red Sox added on from there in a satisfying 8-5 victory in Game 1 of the day-night doubleheader.
The Rays broke out to a 4-0 lead towards Sox starter Garrett Whitlock, plating three within the third and one other within the fifth.
On a day the wind was always pulling down fly balls, Boston eventually utilized some sustained stress in that wild backside of the sixth. Fittingly, it was Turner who utilized the large hit, as a result of he was the one brimming with fireplace for a lot of the chilly afternoon.
“He’s a good player, he’s a good influence on the kids,” stated Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora. “We fell behind today. And the way we did, it wasn’t a good taste. But he kept going in the dugout and pushing them, and I think it helped us out today.”
Turner, the gritty veteran, missed a 1-1 fastball proper down the center from Jalen Beeks earlier within the at-bat. But he teed off on a 2-2 changeup on the decrease, inside half and hammered it excessive off the wall. On a hotter day, it might need traveled properly sufficient to be a grand slam.
“I hate the weather here,” stated Rays first baseman Yandy Díaz. “Obviously it was cold, and that bothers you when you’re at bat and on defense. It bothers you both ways.”
But it didn’t hassle Turner, who’s changing into a hardened Bostonian in his brief time with the Red Sox.
“I think you saw in the first inning a couple balls got knocked down,” stated Turner. “I just kept mine low enough to where the wind didn’t really affect it, but yeah, I’m glad I hit the wall.”
The Red Sox thought perhaps they’d hit a wall early within the sport as they have been unable to generate something impactful towards Rays opener Trevor Kelly and the 2 relievers who got here in earlier than Beeks.
But Turner did his finest to maintain the staff targeted and supply his teammates with the idea that issues would flip.
“Yeah, just every time we came in the dugout, it was just, ‘Come on, let’s go, keep getting another leadoff guy on, let’s build an inning,’” stated Turner. “And we’ve been actually good at that every one yr, simply constructing innings and never essentially scoring each inning however setting issues up and placing stress on them the place we get to at least one swing away from the crooked quantity.”
We did an excellent job immediately of simply pushing and pushing and pushing after which finally, you realize, you see the six.”
Turner’s method in that bases-loaded scenario was constructed years in the past in a dialog with Carlos Lee, who performed his final Major League sport in 2012.
“One thing that has always stuck with me was a conversation with Carlos Lee when he was in Houston, asking him about driving in runs,” Turner stated. “He said the most important thing is to make sure you drive in one, and if you do that, then sometimes bigger things happen and that’s how you get two or three or sometimes it goes over the fence for four.”
The Red Sox felt they knew precisely what they have been getting in Turner once they signed him as a free agent in December, and he has come as marketed.
“He’s a good player. He’s been doing it for a lot of years, coming from an organization [the Dodgers] that was in the playoffs nine years in a row and he was a big part of it,” stated Cora. “Just the at-bat he gives. It’s the quality of the at-bat. He will fight the at-bat, go the other way [at times].”
And on this gloomy Saturday, Turner didn’t wish to let the Fenway trustworthy down.
“I think the atmosphere here every single day, whether it’s a rainy Tuesday or a Saturday night, the fans are here. The fans are loud,” stated Turner.
