Verdugo's clutch opposite-field hit signals changed approach

BOSTON -- It didn’t have all the fanfare of a dramatic hit a player might look for, but it ended up being the difference for the Red Sox on Wednesday night.

Down 2-1 in the bottom of the 4th, Alex Verdugo laced a two-run opposite-field double to help propel the Red Sox to a 4-3 win over the Royals at Fenway Park.

Verdugo, who has dealt with noise on and off the field this season, got off to a hot start in 2023 before a cool July brought the outfielder down to earth. But at the end of the month, Verdugo noticed a shift in his body at the plate during Boston’s trip to Seattle that began on July 31.

“I was putting my body in a bad situation to put off a good swing and kind of lost my hands while doing that,” Verdugo said. “So for me it was just trying to get my hands back, try to be a little more upright with my posture and just let my hands work. I think that was a changeup off the plate away and was able to just kind of just let the arms get a little bit extended and get a good line drive [to the opposite field].”

In a 1-1 count against Royals starter Jordan Lyles, Verdugo got just enough of his bat on an 86.6 mph changeup outside the zone. A bounding MJ Melendez laid out for the ball in left-center before it grazed off the left-fielder’s glove and landed for a base hit.

“That was good, by tracking the pitches and going the other way, he was getting a little pull happy, swinging over pitches,” manager Alex Cora said. “And to be able to stay on that pitch and go the other way. Melendez, great effort. Credit to [Rafael Devers] too. Sometimes the runner when he sees the ball and it hits the glove they slow down, and he just kept going.”

Verdugo’s first test came in his first at-bat, when he rolled over a changeup from Lyles that resulted in a groundout. The left-handed hitter’s pull-rate has been up and down this season, reaching as high as 35.6 percent (May), and now down to 30.8 percent in an albeit small sample size just one week into August.

“I was just looking to put off a good swing and be on time,” Verdugo said of his second at-bat. “And for me, it’s not trying to go oppo, it’s trying to go through the ball. Try to stay inside the ball and through it. … That’s what I’m kind of trying to avoid is the hook-jobs, or the rollovers … I’d rather have a blooper to left than a rollover to first.”

In the same frame, Verdugo came around to score from second on an RBI single hit up the middle by Reese McGuire.

“Great send by [third-base coach] Carlos [Febles] there,” Cora said. “It was one of those that was gonna be ‘bang-bang,’ but [Verdugo] did a good job hustling to the plate and scoring.”

Verdugo has hit in nine of his past 11 games, dating back to just before the Seattle trip. Since July 28, he’s gone 11-for-35 (.314 average).

While Verdugo quietly delivered the go-ahead hit, Triston Casas loudly opened the scoring for Boston with a solo homer to right-center field in the 2nd inning. The blast registered at 431 feet, per Statcast, to give him eight straight homers of 410-plus feet.

“Every run was big today,” Verdugo said. "Whether it was the homer by Casas, the two runs I drove in, Reese’s line drive up the middle. These are all big at-bats, and you saw today we won by one. Reese’s big play on defense throwing [Dairon Blanco] out. I think it was just one of those things, it was a team effort and our pitchers did the job, [Nick Pivetta] did a really good job starting and bullpen came down, shut it down as well. It was a good all-around win.”