Sox 'come back to normal' with 20-run rout

BOSTON -- The Red Sox just needed to breathe a little.

And to do that, they needed to execute from the mound, at the plate and in the field -- and do it all in unison for the first time in a couple of weeks.

The Red Sox got everything they needed and more in Wednesday’s 20-8 rout over the Rays that wasn’t nearly that close in reality.

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They did it by putting together an all-around clinic in which the tone was set from the first pitch Nathan Eovaldi threw -- a 96.7 mph heater that seared across the bottom of the strike zone.

They did it with an offense that was relentless from the outset, with Kiké Hernández, Hunter Renfroe and Xander Bogaerts starting the bottom of the first with three straight doubles en route to a quick 3-0 lead.

And unlike in recent days, the Red Sox didn’t just take a lead -- they kept adding to it, piling on with two more runs in the second, five in the fourth, four more in the fifth and a six-spot in the eighth.

“Take a look at everything that is going on, this whole thing with men in scoring position, it has to change, right?” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It has to come back to normal. I'm not saying we're going to hit .400, but we're not going to hit .180. So it started off well with Nate setting the tempo, Hunter going the other way right away with [a man] at second, and we just kept rolling.”

Roll they did. Staked to a 20-1 cushion, it didn’t matter at all when Phillips Valdez gave up seven runs in a mop-up top of the ninth. Cora was also able to stay away from all of his leverage relievers, who have been asked to do too much lately and have faltered under that weight.

“It’s a great win for us. It’s a big one for us,” said Eovaldi, who allowed three hits and a run while striking out 10 in seven dominant innings. “They’re in first place right now. We’re coming after them. Tonight was a big win for us. We have to come out [Thursday] with the same mentality, go out there and attack, do what we did tonight.”

Coming into Wednesday’s game, Boston had reeled badly off course, losing 10 out of its last 12 contests. Another defeat would have pushed Cora’s team six games back in the American League East, something that would have been unfathomable for a squad that led the division by 2 1/2 games as recently as July 28.

Fortunately for the Sox, it didn’t come to that. Instead, they slimmed their deficit back to four and set themselves up with a chance to win the series on Thursday against the team they are chasing atop the division.

“What was going on for three weeks, that's not who we are,” said Cora. “We know that. And we're going to keep getting better.”

Now, the hope is that the Red Sox’s momentum can carry over to Thursday, when the electric Tanner Houck will be recalled from Triple-A Worcester with the expectation that Boston’s No. 6 prospect will stay in the rotation for good this time.

On Saturday, the Sox will have ace Chris Sale back on the mound -- one day after the two-year anniversary of his last pitch for the club. And next week, Kyle Schwarber, the big bat acquired just before the Trade Deadline, should be healthy enough to make his debut for Boston.

“Help is on the way,” Bogaerts said. “I mean, not a lot of people can trade for Chris Sale at the Deadline. It’s going to be fun when he gets on the mound. Obviously we saw how Schwarber was right before he got hurt, just launching balls all over the place.

“I mean, we don’t want to [ask for] all those home runs, but we wouldn’t mind if we see them. Obviously we don’t want to put that amount of pressure on him. But it would be nice, especially with that Green Monster here for him if he can just play pepper if he wants. It’s definitely two guys that we’re excited to see [to] give this ballclub a better boost.”

As bad as things looked for the Red Sox over the last couple of weeks, they will now go about the business of trying to prove it was just a bad stretch -- and not an indication of where their season is headed.

Winning the rubber match against the Rays could be significant in pointing the arrow back in the right direction.