Verdugo steals show with 2 HRs & a robbery

BOSTON -- The scream was primal. The joy was genuine. The smile couldn’t be contained.

Alex Verdugo had his breakout game for the Red Sox on Friday night. And when he capped the performance by timing his leap perfectly in front of the visiting bullpen and taking a home run away from Travis Shaw to start the top of the ninth, he let loose.

In a ballpark with no fans, Verdugo’s shouting came in loud and clear. First there was a shriek, and then some gyrations with his arm, and a “Let’s go!”

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The cheers going back in his direction from the Boston dugout could also be heard.

Boston’s new right fielder, who also belted two opposite-field homers into the Monster Seats, led his team to an exciting 5-3 victory over the Blue Jays.

“To take one back there in a two-run game, it was huge, and obviously you guys could see, I was pretty hyped up,” Verdugo said.

It was fair to wonder if Verdugo had ever been that loud after one of his own catches, but perhaps it had been drowned out by a packed house of fans.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever really screamed like that after a catch, even with fans,” said Verdugo.

And why did this one bring such emotion from him?

“I think today was a little bit more hyped up because it was robbing a homer,” Verdugo said. “You know, when you make a diving play and all that, you just do the typical tip your cap at some of the players and say, 'I got you.'

“But yeah, taking a home run back, that’s one of the most exciting plays in baseball. And after just hitting [a homer in the bottom of the eighth], I was on cloud nine. I was letting it out.”

Bring it on, say the Red Sox, who are now 5-8 with a modest two-game winning streak after Verdugo’s entertaining night.

“He’s definitely one of those guys who wears his emotions on his sleeves, so to see him bouncing all over the place, obviously robbing that homer there at the end was awesome,” said Red Sox first baseman Mitch Moreland, who also aided the cause with a two-run homer to the visiting bullpen in right that snapped a 2-2 tie in the third to give Boston the lead for good.

Of Moreland’s seven hits this season, four have been homers. He later added a defensive gem, making a diving snare on a hard grounder in the eighth to take a hit away from Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

But the story of the night was Verdugo.

“He gets you pretty excited, doesn’t he? It’s so nice to see,” said Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke. “Just great at-bats, and the catch there at the end. And just to watch the emotion is pretty fun. We worry about creating energy, he created it.

“You can see how excited the guys were for him. Hopefully we just continue. You don’t know who you’re going to feed off of. You can feed off of anybody. Maybe this sparks the whole team and we get it going. I know we didn’t get a whole lot of hits. Obviously he was a huge part of why we won.”

For Verdugo, that makes it three homers on the season -- all of them coming in the past two games.

His timing couldn’t be better. Three key hitters -- Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez -- are all slumping heavily at the same time.

The most successful left-handed hitters at Fenway Park are usually the ones who can use the Green Monster to their advantage. That’s why Friday’s performance was so encouraging from Verdugo.

“Yeah, my game is I hit line drives from the left-field line to the right-field line,” Verdugo said. “My timing was a little bit off a little bit earlier in the year. I was starting late, so then I was rushing. My pitch selection was kind of subpar, just from what I’m used to. I was swinging at pitches out of the zone and stuff like that.”

Now that Verdugo is starting to lock it in, Red Sox fans are seeing why chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was adamant that Verdugo be the centerpiece return of that blockbuster trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Dodgers.

“I’m going out there and playing right field, I’m playing my game, I don’t think about Mookie,” Verdugo said. “I think he’s a great player, he did a lot for Boston, he’s going to do a lot for the Dodgers. I think about me being here and what I’m going to do and what I’m going to bring to this team.”