The Red Sox needed a game like Wednesday’s so badly.
At least, until Phillips Valdez came in to pitch.
But we’re not going to talk about that! We’re going to pretend his ERA did not go from 3.82 to 5.56 in one inning, because the Red Sox scored 20 runs! And they pulled off a much-needed win in spectacular fashion (minus the crash landing in the ninth inning).
Boston’s previous season-high runs scored in a game this year was 15, and no Sox lineup had scored 20 or more runs in a game since 2015. According to Alex Speier, this was only the 18th game in franchise history in which a Red Sox team scored 20+ runs in one game.
But the craziest part of this absolute barrage actually had nothing to do with the Red Sox at all: there were two players in the Rays lineup from the last time the Red Sox scored 20+ runs, way back on August 15, 2015.
Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino were in the opposing lineups for both of the Red Sox’s most recent 20+ run games in August 2015 and August 2021.
That day in 2015, the Sox played the Seattle Mariners, and they faced Nelson Cruz and Mike Zunino in a 22-10 beatdown. Both Cruz and Zunino were in the Rays lineup on Wednesday night to suffer through it again; talk about unpleasant deja vu.
It was a lot more fun for Xander Bogaerts who is the only Red Sox player to have appeared in the 2015 game and Wednesday’s game.
Boston’s lineup that night had Mookie Betts in leadoff, followed by Brock Holt, Bogaerts, and David Ortiz. All four of them had at least three hits and two RBI.
But the real star of the show was Jackie Bradley Jr., who went 5-for-6 with seven RBI, five runs scored, three doubles, and two home runs. He finished the night with 14 total bases and was the first player in franchise history with five extra-base hits in the same game. He had more doubles than the entire Mariners lineup; Ketel Marte led off the game with what would be their only one.
In fact, Cruz and Zunino both homered, but it wasn’t enough to power the Mariners past the Sox, who had been white-hot at the time. Boston had also scored 15 runs the night before, the first time since June 1950 that a Red Sox team had scored 15+ runs and 21 hits in back-to-back games. No other MLB team had accomplished the feat in between.
In the present, the Rays are sitting comfortably in first place, while the Red Sox are scrambling to save a season that was recently fairly solid. Still, history repeating itself couldn’t have been fun for Cruz and Zunino.