Red Sox Notes: Improved Production, Health Boosting Boston Bats

BOSTON — The Red Sox stormed back over the last two games to take the series from the Philadelphia Phillies, doing so on Thursday night with a 9-3 win at Fenway Park.

A pair of four-run innings boosted Boston against a quality Philadelphia starter in Aaron Nola. With a lineup recently enforced by the returns of Masataka Yoshida and Tyler O’Neill, the Red Sox found more potential at the plate.

“We’re getting healthier,” Alex Cora said. “We are. Yoshida and O’Neill. Hopefully, (Wilyer Abreu) by next week. It’s a good lineup.”

“That’s a good pitcher on the mound over there,” O’Neill said. “Had to take our best stuff against him. Awesome to see the guys swing the bat, man. One through nine. We were finding barrels and hitting the ball hard. It was awesome to see.”

Boston faced a tipping point when the lead got cut to one after former Red Sox slugger Kyle Schwarber cleared the bases with a three-run double. Boston responded with four more runs in the bottom half of that fourth inning, fueled by O’Neill’s three-run homer to left field.

“That was huge,” Jarren Duran said. “I feel like that’s when you get tested as a team is when you get punched in the mouth and be able to punch back. They hit us pretty good. We came back right away and we were able to score some runs.”

“We were able to have a good bounce-back inning,” O’Neill added. “Obviously, that was a big swing for them. We came out and wanted to punch them right back. We did a good job to keep the line moving. Obviously, couple big swings from us did damage.”

In a true test of a six-game homestand, Boston earned the series victory in the first half. It’s up to the Red Sox to weather the tides of the season to stay on schedule against quality competition.

“We played well, man,” Cora said. “We’ve got a good team. We’re gonna lose some games and we’re gonna win some games. I know everybody thought the must-win was Sunday in Chicago because they have the worst record in baseball. We don’t see it that way. We show up every day and work hard. Sometimes, it will be good. Sometimes, it won’t be great. Sometimes, we’re gonna struggle. That’s who we are. We have accepted that as a team. We’re gonna show up every day and try to kick your ass.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Phillies-Red Sox game:

— O’Neill homered for the first time since May 19 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

— Duran recorded his seventh game in 2024 with multiple extra-base hits.

— The Red Sox forced Nola into just his second career outing in which he allowed eight earned runs. The other instance came on Aug. 30, 2022 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

— Boston set a season-high with seven doubles on the night.

— The Red Sox won the season series against the Phillies for the second consecutive year.

— Tanner Houck did not have his best stuff. Nonetheless, he turned in another quality start over six innings with three runs allowed and five strikeouts. Consistently giving the Red Sox six innings encapsulates his ultimate priority.

“For me, it’s means a lot,” Houck said. “I take pride in going deeper into games and keeping the boys in games as long as possible. I never wanted to be that five-and-dive pitcher. I always wanted to go six, seven, eight, nine innings. I’ve done that pretty frequently this year. I made that a point. I also made it a point to throw more strikes this year.”

— The Red Sox play their first series against their rivals in the New York Yankees. First pitch on Friday night is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus 90 minutes of pregame coverage, on NESN.