Red Sox look to squash emerging trend, 'step it up' at Fenway

BOSTON -- In 2021, the last year the Red Sox made it to the playoffs, manager Alex Cora used to rave about Friday nights at Fenway Park -- how that was easily the most electric night of the week.

That season three years ago was also the last time Boston held any kind of a home-field advantage.

An all too familiar theme resurfaced on Friday, as the Sox came back from a solid road series, taking two out of three in Houston, only to get belted around, 12-2, by the Diamondbacks in the opener of an eight-game homestand.

Boston is 2-9 in Friday night games at Fenway, and 29-33 in home games. Conversely, Cora’s squad is 38-27 on the road.

“Yeah, today was kind of like, ‘Blah,’” said Cora. “Not much going on, right? So we’ve just got to be ready for tomorrow. It's not like a preparation thing. It's not that we're preparing differently on the road. But like I said, we’ve got to figure it out here and start playing good baseball at home.”

For a youthful team that is performing well above expectations -- even with Friday’s sound defeat, the Sox are 3 1/2 games behind the Twins for the third American League Wild Card spot -- the struggles at Fenway are threatening to keep the Red Sox as spectators in October.

Friday’s loss started on the mound, as Brayan Bello (5 1/3 innings, seven hits, five earned runs, four walks, two strikeouts) couldn’t ride the wave of momentum he had built in pitching well in three of his previous four starts.

But there’s still time to turn it around, starting Saturday when they go against D-backs ace Zac Gallen. Boston counters with Kutter Crawford.

“Yeah, obviously I feel a little bit frustrated, because I wanted to give my team the chance to win tonight and start the homestand in a good stance,” said Bello. “But we’ll come back tomorrow and win the game tomorrow.”

The best chance the Red Sox had after their one-run rally in the first came two innings later, when Rob Refsnyder -- a late addition to the lineup after Tyler O’Neill was scratched with left fourth finger inflammation -- came up with the bases loaded and two outs.

Refsnyder struck out on three pitches, capping the at-bat by swinging through an 0-2 cutter from winning pitcher Ryne Nelson.

“That was a tough one,” said Refsnyder, who hit a solo home run in the sixth. “The Diamondbacks have been playing really, really well. Really good team. Bats went cold. I had a couple key at-bats with guys on base and didn’t get the job done. So I took a lot of [blame] for the offense stalling out a couple innings. So that's on me, for sure.”

Going through the numbers, there isn’t much that highlights why the club’s record is so much better on the road.

One thing that stands out a little is that the right-handed hitters have put up better numbers on the road (.257/.314/.425, 10.4% home run to fly-ball rate) than at home (.240/.308/.378, 8.9 % HR/FB).

Despite the inviting Green Monster, Refsnyder and O’Neill are two right-handed hitters who have been significantly better on the road than at home as these numbers illustrate:

O'Neill: .768 OPS at home, .974 on the road.
Refsnyder: .753 OPS at home, .923 on the road.

“I don't know what our record is at home, but we've been playing well on the road, and we’ve got to step it up at home, especially because the fans are still coming out and cheering us on, and the energy has been great. So yeah, we owe the fans a lot better,” Refsnyder said.

Perhaps having Triston Casas back will help. The first baseman returned from a four-month absence on the last road trip, and Friday was just his 11th game at Fenway this season. Casas had a pair of hits, including a 105.6 mph double.

“Playing better at home has been the emphasis for the last couple years,” Casas said. “And we put just as much stock into the games as we do away from home. Coming in, it’s important to set a good tone, especially on Fridays. I know we play bad on Fridays, I don’t know why. We have to be better at home.”