Boston wins 5th straight behind Casas' big night

BOSTON -- Triston Casas was grinding out at-bats, one after one. But he wasn’t finishing them, leading to stats that might unsettle him if he looked up at Fenway's scoreboard in center field.

In Wednesday’s 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays, in which the Red Sox extended their season-high winning streak to five games, Casas (3-for-5, two RBIs) was a finisher.

The rookie laced a 3-2 fastball from Alex Manoah for a game-tying single to right field in the bottom of the fourth. An inning later, Casas ripped an 0-1 pitch for another equalizing RBI single, this one to left at an exit velocity of 102.4 mph.

For a hitter who came into the night with a slash line of .128/.281/.282, including an 0-for-11 dry spell, those clutch knocks were much-needed.

It turns out that Casas' best swing of the night looked like a grand slam off the bat, but instead it died in the cold, damp air and went as a 399-foot flyout to center. The drive had an expected batting average of .850. It would have been a slam in five of MLB’s 30 parks, but not in Fenway this time of year.

“I think that was one of my best swings of the season, honestly,” said Casas. “High fastball, top of the zone, bases loaded, not trying to do too much, trying to put the ball in play. All those things culminated with good contact. Everything evens out with the baseball gods.”

Casas got affirmation of that in his final at-bat of the night, a lazy fly ball to left misplayed by Daulton Varsho. That one had an xBA of .010.

“Climate affects everything, so I'm confident everything will even out,” said Casas. “And I’m just trying to do my best to swing at good pitches and barrel them up as often as possible.”

Casas' early-season struggles have brought back memories of another prized prospect’s woes in 2007.

That season, Boston got the ultimate reward when manager Terry Francona stayed patient with a rookie named Dustin Pedroia, who was hitting .180 on May 3. Alex Cora was the red-hot hitter sharing time with the slumping second baseman and mentoring him at the same time. The Red Sox went to Minneapolis for a weekend series and Pedroia had a breakout starting on May 5 that didn’t really stop until injuries derailed him in the final few years of his career.

This isn’t to say Casas will win the Rookie of the Year Award like Pedroia did in 2007. But Cora -- now Boston’s manager -- has had zero temptation to pull the plug early on a talented young player, because he has seen firsthand how dramatically things can shift.

It turns out Cora has been encouraging Casas the same way he encouraged Pedroia all those years ago.

“Yeah, every day I come in, AC makes sure to tell me to keep going and not let it get in my head. He instills that confidence in me,” Casas said. “Some days I'm down and he sees it and he picks me up right away.

“Having a manager like that shooting me straight, who is always honest with me, lets me know how he feels, that’s everything I could ask for in my first manager. I think everybody in this room is behind him. And he's got all of our backs. But for me personally, the support is immense.”

Cora enjoyed watching Casas contribute to a win on Wednesday, all the while knowing his contributions will grow bigger with more experience.

“Like I said, it’s about finishing the at-bats. The one he crushed, it was an out,” said Cora. “But he moved the ball around.”

As for the confidence of his first baseman, that is low on Cora’s worry list.

“That’s something he will never lose,” said Cora. “He’ll let you know he’s in a good spot.”