Deja vu in Chicago: Red Sox tally 7-run inning

CHICAGO -- The Red Sox are putting teams on notice that they can still be the best offense in baseball.

Boston’s offense came up with another big inning in Sunday’s 9-2 victory against the White Sox, a seven-run eighth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field.

They didn’t score as many runs as early in the tilt as they did in their 9-run third inning Saturday night, so the drama was greater as they looked to scratch across a run late with the game knotted at 2 after seven.

• Box Score

Like Christian Vázquez a night earlier, Rafael Devers played the role of the catalyst in the eighth inning, driving a ball off the left-field wall with one out. Devers quickly slowed about halfway between first and second base as left fielder Nicky Delmonico made a nice play off the wall, and then things got interesting.

“When I hit the ball, I thought I could make it to second base easy. Then, when I saw the throw coming, I decided to go back to first base,” Devers said. “Just run hard. The only way they were going to get me was with a perfect throw."

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson threw the cutoff throw to first thinking he could catch Devers in between, but the throw bounced away from José Abreu at the base. Devers saw the ball roll away and headed to second, drawing a throw from Abreu that sailed into left field and allowed him to scramble for third and make it there safely.

“He read it well. Anderson took a chance on that one,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He saw the ball get away and made a good read.”

After a walk to Michael Chavis, Mitch Moreland's RBI single put the Red Sox ahead 3-2 before they once again opened the floodgates. The Red Sox proceeded to score additional runs on a unique Eduardo Núñez RBI single and an Andrew Benintendi four-pitch bases-loaded walk.

Xander Bogaerts put the cap on Boston's nine-run third inning on Saturday with a three-run shot and did similarly Sunday afternoon by lining the fifth grand slam of his career into the bullpen in left to give Boston a 9-2 lead.

“I [haven’t] had nothing working, man. I’ve been feeling bad the last two days,” Bogaerts said. “Not even gonna lie to you. Leading up to the last homestand in Oakland I wasn’t even feeling right. It’s one of those things where you just wanna relax and figure it out. Sometimes you wanna have a big swing and it’s not always going to happen. I’m definitely thankful for that one.”

The Red Sox scored 16 of their 34 total runs in the series in the two big innings on Saturday and Sunday, which would have outscored the White Sox entire series output, 16-11. Boston has now won six of its last seven games and has an even run differential on the season after its big series in Chicago.

“We’re almost there [in run differential],” Cora said with a smile. “I know that’s a big topic for everybody. We’re even. Now we go.”

Starting pitching on a roll

Boston starters threw the ball well in the four-game series against the White Sox, and that didn’t change with Sunday’s starter Rick Porcello. Porcello continued his fine stretch of pitching, giving up just two runs on five hits over his six innings. The right-hander struck out seven batters and did not surrender a walk.

It was the fourth consecutive quality start by a Red Sox starter and their fifth in their last six starts.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but we battled. Sandy [Leon] did a great job working me through it,” Porcello said.

David Price, Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Porcello all pitched well in the four-game set and could each have walked away with a victory. Despite not accomplishing that, the rotation has picked up the slack for each other.

With Sale showing he has seemingly turned the corner, the rotation can now take the pressure off of the bullpen, which has been used more than usual with Nathan Eovaldi out of commission.

“That’s what we want from these guys,” Cora said. “Go six, seven [innings]. Give us a chance to win.”