BOSTON -- Leave it to the Red Sox to turn the most exciting moment in baseball -- the walkoff -- into a snoozer.
Not that they're complaining, mind you. A win is a win, and at this point, they'd happily fish a rotting one out of the disposal and put it on the mantel.
On Wednesday, they crawled back to a game over .500 with a 4-3 victory over the Rangers that, per their idiom, as Monty Python might say, wasn't easy or pretty or particularly inspiring.
They blew a 3-2 lead in the eighth on a hit batter, sacrifice bunt/E-2, and sacrifice fly. But this time they didn't fold, loading the bases in the ninth against Rangers reliever Jesse Chavez on a booming double by Christian Vazquez, single by Jackie Bradley Jr., and walk to Michael Chavis before Mookie Betts quite literally walked it off with a base on balls that may not have provided scintillating drama, but at least saw the Red Sox end a skid of five losses in six games.
"We need every win we can get right now," said starter Rick Porcello. "We're trying to create some momentum, get rolling here. Hopefully, we can reel off a couple in a row and get things headed in the right direction again."
Porcello did his part, allowing a pair of first-inning runs and then silencing the Rangers thereafter, departing with two outs in the seventh and a 3-2 lead. He provided a reminder that if the Red Sox could either (a) get Nathan Eovaldi back, or (b) stop sending Triple-A flotsam to the mound every five days in his place, they might be able to ride their starting pitching a little bit, or at least the top three of David Price, Chris Sale, and Porcello.
"Yeah, I mean, this is a game that everybody kind of knew we needed to win and Rick went out there and after that first, he threw the ball really well and gave us a shot to win," said left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a triple. "Yeah, this is a big win, so hopefully we can build off of it."
Boston Red Sox
It would be nice to sit here and claim the Red Sox have turned some corner, but this one was a struggle, and many of the issues that have plagued them all season remained glaring. The offense left nine men on base, the bullpen blew another late lead, and the defense failed at a pivotal moment.
Betts' winning play came without the bat leaving his shoulder over the course of five pitches.
"Umm, just got to get a strike," he said. "[Chavez is] the one kind of in trouble there, so you've just got to get a strike. You can kind of be more picky in that situation."
Picky is one thing the Red Sox can't be at the moment. As they try to drag themselves back into playoff contention, they'll take any win they can get.
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