Red Sox match their Fenway Park season-best in runs and hits in win over Orioles

By now, the Red Sox have experienced enough to know with reasonable confidence: There is no magical elixir, no proverbial one big hit, no sudden turning point that will save their season. It will be harder and take longer than that.

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Seventeen runs in Baltimore on April 25, the day they fired their manager, didn’t do it. Neither did Willson Contreras’ late game-winning home run in Atlanta on May 16. Nor sweeps in Detroit and Kansas City last month. Over and over, any modicum of momentum has been met with a return to listlessness.

So in the wake of an 8-1 win over the Orioles on Wednesday, about as well-rounded a performance as they have put together all year, there were no big takeaways, no ultra-optimism from the Sox. Merely a mandate to show up and try to do it again the next day.

Wilyer Abreu’s three RBIs, Ceddanne Rafaela’s three hits, and Payton Tolle’s six shutout innings will mean only what the Red Sox (26-34) can make it mean in the weeks to come.

“It shows what we’re capable of. It’s there,” said Tolle, who lowered his ERA to 2.28. “So just kind of taking it, momentum, leaving it, going to the next one. And just continue to have fun playing the game.”

In front of an announced sellout crowd of 36,872, every member of the Red Sox starting lineup had a hit by the end of the fifth inning. They scored five runs in that frame — more than they have totaled in 20 of 30 home games this year. They matched their Fenway Park season-best in runs and hits (15).

The offensive breakout was “much-needed, especially at Fenway Park,” Contreras said. The Sox own a 10-20 home record.

“I see a lot of people talking [expletive] about us,” he said. “We have to take that personally, and we have to have some pride about our career and our game, and we showed up tonight to win.”

Rafaela said: “The fans bring the energy every day and we felt the vibe today and it was fun like it always is. Winning at Fenway is fun and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Caleb Durbin finished 2 for 4 with two runs scored and another double. He has registered an extra-base hit in six consecutive games.

In that big bottom of the fifth, the Sox got a key assist from the Orioles (29-33) when center fielder Blaze Alexander completely lost Mickey Gasper’s routine fly ball. It turned into a two-run triple. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Durbin, and Rafaela followed with run-scoring hits.

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“Seeing the hits pile up and stacking hits and adding on runs and continuing to add on runs here was a welcome sight,” interim manager Chad Tracy said.

The Red Sox reached righthander Chris Bassitt for three runs in three innings. Abreu contributed an RBI single in the first and blasted a two-run home run — an estimated 398 feet down the right-field line, just fair — in the third. It was his first long ball since May 8.

Powering through slightly diminished velocity, Tolle was plenty effective, posting his second scoreless outing in eight games this season. He scattered seven hits and two walks and held the Orioles to 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Perhaps the most critical of those came in the first inning, after Baltimore had two on and one out and Adley Rutschman was caught trying to steal second for the second out. Tolle ended the threat by tying up Pete Alonso, who swung at and missed on a cutter way inside. It was his 25th pitch of the inning.

“The first inning got weird. It was like I couldn’t really feel anything in the zone,” Tolle said. “Settled in after that, got back to just pounding zone.”

Rafaela collided chin-first with the center-field wall in the seventh inning in a failed pursuit of Rutschman’s RBI triple. He was slow to get up but stayed in the game and doubled in his next at-bat.

“The hardest I’ve hit a wall,” Rafaela said. “The whole body got shocked right there, but thankfully I’m OK.”

Rookie reliever Ryan Watson tossed the final three innings (one run) to record the first save of his career. The statistical note wasn’t on his radar until pitching coach Andrew Bailey reminded him after the eighth what three more outs would mean.

He kept the lineup card from the game and the ball from the final out.

“It was funny, because I was starting to run out of steam there, but then [Bailey] said that and it fired me up,” Watson said. “So I just tried to lock back in and get it going again, get back in there, and try to close it out for the guys.”

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