Sean McAdam: Red Sox’ win a reminder that sometimes, a little contact can mean a lot (2025)

BOSTON — A masterpiece this was not.

The Red Sox botched an important double play that led to a run. They committed two more errors. They struck out 10 times. And in 14 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, they collected a measly two hits, continuing a season-long problem.

In the end, though, none of it mattered. The Red Sox claimed their second walk-off win with a rather routine ground ball to second that wasn’t fielded cleanly, handing them a 4-3 victory in 10 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Far from a thing of beauty, but when you’ve lost three straight, you’ll take what you can get.

“We needed this, to be honest with you,” said a relieved Alex Cora. “We’re scuffling offensively and we know it. It was a good one for us... It’s important (to win games like this sometimes).”

Before the game, Cora had lamented that the Red Sox were not performing well when it came to situational hitting. To begin with, they were striking out far too much.

So when Trevor Story came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game in the bottom of the 10th, he wasn’t aiming for a walk-off grand slam. Instead, he was focused on making contact.

“Put the ball in play,” said a smiling Cora afterward. “You hit it off the bat, they might miss it or whatever. You put it in play, something can happen. It’s not a strikeout. (Story) did a good job and we ended up winning the game.”

Story managed a cue shot off the end of the bat. The Blue Jays had their infield in on the grass, but sure-handed second baseman Andres Gimenez, dealing with the backspin of the ball, couldn’t handle it cleanly as punch-runner David Hamilton slid in head-first.

“Just given the situation — a funky pitcher (Nick Sandlin) on the mound — I was just trying to find a way to get it done," said Story. “It was a grinder. Just trying to put the ball in play.”

Story had had opportunities earlier in the series and didn’t come through. He had a chance to win Wednesday’s game in the bottom of the 10th, with Triston Casas at third and one out. All he needed was a flyout to the outfield, but Story instead fanned.

“That bothered me a lot,” said Story. “Today, I had a much better plan of attack and I executed it much better than (Wednesday) night.”

Too often, the Red Sox have had an all-or-nothing approach at the plate – both last year and again this season. Their 136 strikeouts lead all teams, and that surely has led to many of their struggles with runners in scoring position.

That total was supposed to be reduced this year, as the Red Sox lost Tyler O’Neill, who struck out in a third of his at-bats last season, and effectively replaced him with Alex Bregman, known for making more consistent contact.

But whether it’s the cold weather or the quality of the pitching they’ve faced, it hasn’t helped.

“We haven’t hit,” said Cora flatly before Thursday’s game. “Offensively, we’re a lot better than this. But throughout the games, we have to make adjustments. You look at the game (Wednesday), we struck out 10 times on four-seamers. At some point, you have to spread out and put the ball in play. That’s the bottom line.

”We can take the strikeouts; I get it. But there’s certain situations that we have to move the ball forward. We can’t fall into this pattern of striking out 12 times, 10 times, 12 times....because we’re better than that. And the group knows it."

Ordinarily, some slug comes with the climbing strikeouts, but that hasn’t happened either. The Sox have now gone four straight games without a home run and are closer to the bottom third of teams in homers than they are the top third.

On Thursday, however, a homer wasn’t needed, though it might have helped earlier. By the time the bottom of the 10th rolled around, with the potential winning run just 90 feet away, a off-the-end-of-the-bat grounder, which traveled about 80 feet, was all the Red Sox needed.

And with it, came a reminder that simply forcing the other team to make a play and putting pressure on the opposition, is all that’s necessary for a much-needed win.

“That thing just never stopped sweeping,” marveled Story of the grounder he produced. “Hit it off the end. I knew it was going to be a tough play, Hammy kept running and it just kind of spun right out of (Gimenez’) glove.”