BOSTON — Justin Turner integrated well in his first season with the Red Sox for the most part, hitting every shot and hitting his share of key hits while delivering the lead everyone in the dugout and clubhouse expected.
But on Friday night, the red-bearded veteran jumped to the top of baseball’s most famous rivalry with an emphatic offensive display in which he hit a double, a two-run homer and a grand slam in the first three innings of a later 15th-5- Loss to the Yankees at Fenway Park.
It was quite an achievement, especially for a Boston team that had been struggling for runs and wins lately.
For manager Alex Cora, it felt like the first day of summer.
“Finally,” said Cora. “I think that’s probably the hottest thing [home] Game we played all season. It seems like every game we played took place in the 50’s and today it felt like summer. You know what it’s like here in the summer and the ball will carry you. And the guys did an excellent job of applying pressure [Domingo] German. We’ve done some great things. We’re putting pressure on their defense. We were really good offensively tonight.”
The exploits of the 35-35 Red Sox were dampened, however, when starting player Tanner Houck was strapped under the right eye on a line drive by Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka early in the fifth inning. Houck came out on his own. The initial diagnosis is that Houck has a facial contusion. The right one was stitched up in the park and then went to a nearby hospital for observation.
By the time Houck left, the Red Sox were 13-1 up thanks to the damage done by Turner and company. In a six-game period from June 7–12, the Red Sox did not score more than one run in a single game inning.
On Friday, they made it out of the gate with four straight multi-run innings, with Turner centered most of the time.
“Obviously it was an all-around good attack for everyone,” Turner said. “And also use the entire field. Our left-handed batsmen exhausted the monster for nine innings all night and found ways to get on base. I think 15 runs and 17 hits, that’s a pretty good offense.”
Fittingly, Turner had the first goal of the night for the Red Sox, a double to the left that helped set up Masataka Yoshida’s two-run double against the Monsters. Yoshida went 4-on-4 with three RBIs, marking his first four-hit game in the majors.
An inning later, the Sox came back for two more runs, both getting into the front row of monster seats on Turner’s home runs. In the third, Turner fired off a majestic grand slam that hit the back wall behind the center stand, a Statcast-predicted 429-foot streak.
“I didn’t see too many people going up there,” Cora said. “Apparently around ’07, ’08, Manny [Ramirez] I used to meet it up there. The ball is lifted. That was a beautiful swing.”
Thanks to his best night of the season, Turner has a .278/.356/.451 batting line with 10 homers and 36 RBIs.
It is clear that these numbers will improve as the weather continues to become more favorable for the batsmen.
“I talked to Dustin Pedroia a little bit about it and he talked about the difficulty of hitting in the first two months,” Turner said. “But if you can stay afloat when the weather changes and it gets warmer, it’s a great place to try. Obviously this is one of those warmer nights when the wind dies down a bit.
“And you see, a lot of those balls that were caught last month and earlier this year went through the wall and I was lucky to get them [the first] one over. I don’t know if it helped with the second, I managed that quite well.”
Although Rafael Devers and Yoshida are the two Boston hitters opponents will focus most on to stop them, Turner will continue to be relentless in his own way.
“You see the numbers,” Cora said. “Pitches per record appearance. The walks. It’s a first class shot, but we know he’ll see it when the ball starts to fly [more results]. He’ll be fine in the strength department, but he’s just good in attack. It’s a really good shot.”