BOSTON — With saves in his last three appearances, Adam Ottavino looked like he had taken over the Red Sox closer role from Matt Barnes.
But in the seventh inning Friday after the Indians had tied the game and were threatening to pull ahead, Alex Cora summoned Ottavino. The Northeastern product struck out back-to-back hitters to keep the game tied.
The Red Sox scored five times in the bottom of the inning and Ottavino earned the victory. Cora said that approach is likely to continue.
“We’re going to be aggressive when we have a chance to win,” Cora said. “We felt that was a good spot for Adam, knowing that we had (Garrett Whitlock) later in the game. ... We’ll use the guys the right way. We’re going to get big outs from a lot of people.”
Unless Barnes suddenly rights himself, Boston may not use a closer the rest of the way. The Red Sox have won three straight games with three different pitchers earning saves. After Ottavino Wednesday, Whitlock earned a save with three innings of scoreless work Thursday. Whitlock picked up his second of the season Friday.
SCOREBOARD WATCHING — Moments after Whitlock struck out Amed Rosario to end the game, the Red Sox got more good news when Marcus Semien hit a walk-off home run to complete the Blue Jays’ come back from down 8-2 to an 11-10 win over the A’s, allowing Boston to pick up a game on Oakland in the Wild Card race. The Red Sox (78-59) are now three games ahead of the A’s (74-61).
The Yankees (78-56) escaped to beat the Orioles, 4-3 in extra innings.
DEVERS AT SECOND — With Jack Lopez and Travis Shaw out of the game, Jonathan Arauz already playing shortstop and a handful of middle infielders on the COVID-19 IL, Cora had few options to play second base in the eighth and ninth innings.
So Rafael Devers made his 2021 debut there as Danny Santana moved to first and Bobby Dalbec to third.
Devers fielded all three balls hit to him cleanly — two ground outs and an infield single that he had to go a long way to his right on.
LEADOFF HOME RUNS — Kyle Schwarber opened the bottom of the first inning with his eighth leadoff home run of the season and his first with the Red Sox. He has 13 in his career.
Kiké Hernandez, who is currently on COVID-19 IR has five leadoff home runs in 2021 for Boston.
LOPEZ GETS FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE HIT — The summer of 2021 is now officially the summer that Jack Lopez got both a silver medal for Team USA in the Olympics and his first Major League hit. Called up as a COVID replacement earlier this week, he roped a double to right-center in the second inning.
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Red Sox notebook: Alex Cora moving away from a traditional closer; Boston gains a game on Oakland - MassLive.com
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