Verdugo makes point of 1st HR since April 16

BOSTON -- Alex Verdugo had perhaps the widest smile for a player who hit a two-run homer that put his team ahead by seven runs.

And for good measure, Verdugo raised his right arm in triumph as he rounded the bases. Then, he pointed at some people in the stands.

The charismatic left fielder was not showing up the A’s on a Wednesday night when the red-hot Red Sox were on their way to a comfortable 10-1 win at Fenway Park.

Instead, Verdugo was having a joyful moment in celebration of his first home run in nearly two months.

After hitting three home runs in his first eight games and 27 at-bats of the season, Verdugo somehow went 196 at-bats and 48 games before going deep again on Wednesday for the first time since April 16.

Who can figure out baseball sometimes?

“I kind of forgot how it felt,” Verdugo said when asked about his entertaining trip around the bases. “Really, though, it felt good. Obviously, I knew it had been a while since I put one over the fence, so to come up and get some extra insurance and to see one leave the yard was a big relief, finally. It was like a monkey off my back.”

It wasn’t just that Verdugo had stopped hitting homers. His overall offensive game lacked consistency. Sure, there were a lot of hard outs -- an indicator of bad luck.

But Verdugo had also become too susceptible at times to hitting ground balls instead of line drives and fly balls.

Through the slump, manager Alex Cora continued to stick with Verdugo in the important No. 5 spot in Boston’s batting order behind the fearsome 2-3-4 combo of Rafael Devers, J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts.

Cora got a nice payoff for his unwavering confidence on Wednesday, as Verdugo had three hits and four RBIs.

“Dugie is in a good spot,” Cora said. “I know the homers, we talk about it, but the quality of the at-bats have been much better the last two and a half to three weeks. He knows how important he is hitting behind those guys, and we’re glad that he hit the homer.”

While the laundry-cart rides ritual the Red Sox have been doing for the last two seasons has become part of their routine, this was a ride to savor for Verdugo, who had a priceless look on his face as he jumped in and got pushed through the dugout by coach Jason Varitek.

“For me, obviously I’ve seen a lot of guys hit homers and I’m like, ‘When am I going to get a cart ride?’" Verdugo said. "I felt like I’ve been swinging the bat a lot better as of late and hitting some balls hard, and I had some balls that could have gone, but I hit them too low. Just to finally get that right trajectory felt good.”

Verdugo’s drought-buster was one of three key developments for a team that has won 11 of its last 13 games while outscoring the opposition by 38 runs (65-27) during that span. Here are the others.

Winckowski’s first MLB win
With Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Whitlock on the injured list, the Red Sox are relying on their Minor League depth in two of the five rotation spots.

Three days after Kutter Crawford fired five scoreless innings to beat the Mariners, Josh Winckowski did the same against the A’s en route to his first MLB win.

This was a big improvement from Winckowski’s previous start for the Red Sox on May 28, when he gave up four runs on six hits and three walks in three innings.

“It’s a surreal moment,” said Winckowski, who is ranked as Boston’s No. 13 prospect by MLB Pipeline. “It’s obviously something you think about for a really, really long time, especially for it to be for this team. It’s a pretty big moment.”

Devers goes deep … again
The Red Sox slugger is looking primed for a season that will have him prevalent in the American League Most Valuable Player Award discussions. On Wednesday night, Devers went deep for a fourth straight game. This one was a missile that left his bat on a line at 112.8 mph, but it stayed high enough to land in Oakland's bullpen.

With his 128th career homer, Devers broke a tie with Ted Williams for the third most in Red Sox history for a player 25 or younger, trailing only Tony Conigliaro (160) and Jim Rice (133).

“Honestly, he’s one of the best hitters in the big leagues,” Cora said. “There’s a lot of guys having great seasons. [Yankees slugger Aaron] Judge, [Cleveland’s José] Ramirez, but he shows up every day. We’re happy that he’s hitting second for us on a daily basis and playing third base. The way he acted in Spring Training, we had a feeling that it was going to be something like this, and it’s coming true.”