BOSTON — Two straight bullpen games over the weekend, an injured starting pitcher and a key player suspended necessitated a slew of roster moves on a chaotic Monday at Fenway Park.
It also meant nearly one-third of the roster — 10 of 26 players — had spent at least five games in Triple-A Worcester this season, none of which was for injury reasons.
The Boston Red Sox entered Monday having lost a season-high tying four games in a row, sitting three games back in third place in the American League wild-card race. Earlier in the day, the team issued a two-game suspension to Jarren Duran for calling a fan homophobic slur during Sunday’s game.
In other words, the Red Sox were reeling — perhaps in their toughest spot all season.
So before the game, veteran outfielder Rob Refsnyder gathered the team for a message: Don’t stop playing hard. Push the envelope.
“I think to get in the postseason, you can’t be scared to make mistakes,” Refsnyder said. “We have to just play.”
Hours later, four of the team’s youngest players delivered in extra innings, none bigger than 28-year-old New Hampshire native Mickey Gasper, making his major-league debut as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning. A crucial walk for Gasper kept the inning alive and set up none other than Refsnyder for a monumental walk-off hit in a huge 5-4 Red Sox victory over the Texas Rangers.
Rob Refsnyder celebrates after hitting a walk-off single during the 10th inning against the Rangers. (Maddie Malhotra / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images)
“Man, we’re playing with kids, playing with kids in the middle of trying to make it to the playoffs,” manager Alex Cora said. “You look around, you’re like, ‘Wow, this is really happening here.’ They’re enjoying the moment.”
The Red Sox offense, a strength the last three months, has hit a rough patch over the last week, striking out 55 times in a four-game stretch. Monday was another slog, but the team managed to take a 3-1 lead on two bases-loaded walks in the fifth inning.
Brayan Bello, who’d just returned from the paternity list, threw six innings, allowing just one run to help out a severely taxed Red Sox bullpen. But Bailey Horn, recalled Monday to help alleviate the bullpen stress, served up a two-run homer in the seventh to tie the score.
The Rangers took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th, but a quartet of Red Sox “kids” helped Boston pull out the win. Pinch hitter Enmanuel Valdez, recently called up from Worcester, sliced a double to the triangle in center to score the automatic runner and tie the score. Nick Sogard, who made his big-league debut 10 days ago, singled, and Ceddanne Rafaela, in the running for Rookie of the Year, reached on a forceout. Then Cora turned to Gasper.
A Rule 5 pickup from the New York Yankees in the minor-league portion of the draft this winter, Gasper had excelled this summer in Worcester after starting the year in Double-A Portland. A 27th-round pick in the 2018 draft, Gasper ranked second in all of minor-league baseball this season with a 1.179 OPS in 40 games at Worcester. His .402 average ranked fifth in the minors.
Growing up in Merrimack, N.H., and playing college ball at Bryant University in Rhode Island, Gasper had been to his fair share of games at Fenway Park, but none at home plate in the bottom of the 10th in a tie game.
“I was so calm up there,” Gasper said. “I don’t know what was going through my head. I just felt good. I guess I felt like I was at home.”
Gasper fell behind 1-2 before working the count full and laying off a tough slider.
“He took a really, really good slider, maybe low,” Refsnyder said. “Most guys in that moment debut, I know I would have swung over top of that one. So a lot of credit to the player development, the Triple-A staff getting him ready, but all the credit, a lot of the credit goes to him. I mean, that was a huge at-bat.”
After Gasper’s impressive walk, Masataka Yoshida hit into a forceout. That brought Refsnyder to the plate for his heroics.
“It was a great team effort,” Refsnyder said. “We’re pretty banged up right now, so there’s a lot of bench guys that have to play a little bit more, our bullpen had to step up, throw multiple innings, so it was a really good team win, we really needed it.”
On top of Duran’s absence through Tuesday, the Red Sox bullpen was threadbare entering Monday after an especially taxing weekend. With reliever Brennan Bernardino struggling to an 11.70 ERA in his last 14 appearances, the Red Sox optioned the lefty to Worcester along with right-hander Brad Keller, who had pitched four innings in relief Saturday.
Meanwhile, starter James Paxton, who exited Sunday’s start after five pitches with a right calf strain, was placed on the 15-day injury list. Paxton had an MRI on Monday and the team was awaiting the results.
In addition to recalling Horn and adding Gasper to the active roster, the Red Sox added right-hander Chase Shugart to the active roster. Infielder Jamie Westbrook was designated for assignment.
“We were talking about that today in the dugout,” Cora said. “Kind of like, those meetings that we have in spring training that we tell them, ‘Hey, you’re going to Triple A, but there’s a chance that you will contribute, you’re part of this.’ And it happened. It makes you feel good as an organization, it helps in the future, right? Because we’ve given a lot of guys the opportunity to become big leaguers, and this is different because we’re in the middle of it. We’re fighting for a spot, and they’re going to contribute.”
(Top photo: Maddie Malhotra / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images)
