Renfroe mashes 2 HRs: 'This is what I expect'

BOSTON -- Hunter Renfroe has been the main noisemaker during an August that has otherwise been too quiet for the Red Sox offensively.

These clearly aren't dog days for Renfroe, who unloaded for a pair of moonshots totaling five RBIs while leading Boston to an 11-9 victory over the Twins on a hot and sticky Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

Renfroe's two-homer barrage -- which totaled a projected distance of 794 feet per Statcast -- gives him 10 long balls this month and 25 for the season.

"It's amazing. You look up at the scoreboard and you see [25 homers] and [77 RBIs], hitting [.256] with an [.817] OPS and playing elite defense, people don't talk often about him," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "He's been amazing for us against lefties. He has [402] at-bats already. Probably we didn't draw it that way, but he's earned every right to play."

The Sox (72-55) lead the A's (70-57) by two games for the second American League Wild Card spot and trail the Yankees (74-52) by 2 1/2 games for the first spot.

It turns out every bit of Renfroe's power-packed night was needed, as Boston's struggling bullpen had a near meltdown, turning a 9-3 lead into a slim 9-8 edge by the seventh inning.

Thanks in large part to Renfroe and an insurance, two-run, 30th-birthday shot by Kiké Hernández, the mishap by the 'pen didn't cost the Sox a victory.

It is fair to say Renfroe has been one of the best bargains in baseball this season, as Boston signed him to a one-year, $3 million contract after the Rays non-tendered him in December. Making that deal even better for the Red Sox is that Renfroe is still under club control for 2023.

Renfroe is proving that the 60-game season of 2020 was the product of a small sample size.

"Yeah, this is what I expect myself to do every year and even better most of the time," said Renfroe. "I look forward to around 30 home runs, around .250-plus, that's kind of my benchmark where I want to be every year, [also] drive in 100 runs. Sometimes you fall short, but you want to set your expectations high as possible and try to reach them. I think that's kind of the biggest thing, is at least staying available for Alex and being able to go out there every day and compete."

Boston trailed, 3-1, when Renfroe hammered his first homer of the night, a three-run shot that put his team up for good. An inning later, Renfroe seemed to put the rout in motion with a two-run rocket that soared out of Fenway Park and onto Lansdowne Street.

After hitting only three homers in July to go with a .650 OPS, Renfroe's resurgence in August (1.042 OPS) has been well-timed.

Though Renfroe pulled two missiles on Tuesday, he says the key to his turnaround was to stop himself from being so pull-happy.

"I was making sure I wasn't pulling off the baseball and staying to the big part of the field," said Renfroe. "It's kind of more of a mental state of staying to right-center and adjusting to the slider as quickly as I can."

Coming off a recent skid, the Red Sox have won three of their last four and seven of their last 12, though they clearly aren't firing on all cylinders these days.

"It is what it is. We won," said Cora. "People can criticize our team and the holes that we have or we don't have. This is a big league win. We'll take it, we'll work tomorrow, try to get better, but nobody is going to take the joy out of a big league win for us."

For much of that joy, the Red Sox can thank their right-handed- hitting masher, who is second only to Rafael Devers on the team in home runs.