Casas' first career hat trick leads Sox to DH sweep over Twins

BOSTON -- Triston Casas put on a show at Fenway Park. And the entire Red Sox team followed suit.

The lefty slugger's three-homer game set the tone, as the Red Sox swept their doubleheader against the Twins on Sunday to take the series at Fenway. The Sox got back to .500 at 78-78 and now sit four games back in the American League Wild Card race with six games remaining.

"We're gonna keep playing," manager Alex Cora said. "We're gonna keep playing all the way to the end."

Casas crushed three home runs in his first three at-bats of Boston's 8-1 win in Game 1 of Sunday's split doubleheader -- two off Minnesota ace Pablo López, and the third off reliever Brent Headrick. Then the Red Sox offense erupted again in a 9-3 win in the nightcap.

"I felt the most locked-in I have all season," Casas said. "The swing felt effortless."

It was the first career three-homer game for Casas, who was a finalist for American League Rookie of the Year last year, but has played only 57 games this season due to a rib injury. He now has 12 home runs in those 57 games, good for a 34-homer pace over 162 games.

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"It feels good. I know I have that potential -- maybe not to hit three home runs every game, but to hit the ball like that," Casas said. "I know I can do it. It's just a matter of consistency, and doing it over and over."

Boston's previous three-homer game was by Trevor Story against the Mariners on May 19, 2022.

"I don't know how long I'll carry today's thoughts with me," Casas said. "I don't know how many more at-bats it will last. But it was good for those three at-bats, for sure. Hitting comes and goes, and the timing is happy-go-lucky sometimes. But today, it felt like, for those three at-bats, it was consistent."

Casas' three home runs went to every part of the ballpark. He hit a pair of three-run shots off López -- one to deep right-center field in the first inning and one over the Green Monster in the third. When the Twins went to the bullpen to face him leading off the fifth, Casas took Headrick deep to center field even in a lefty-lefty matchup.

"I loved the one down the left-field line. That was my favorite," Casas said. "Just being able to stay inside of a two-strike fastball, not wanting to roll into a double play. That's money right there."

Between that home run over the Monster and when he stepped into the batter's box for the third time, Casas was almost jinxed by Rob Refsnyder, who's been Casas' teammate since he was coming up in the Minors. Or maybe not.

"Right before the third one, I was next to Ref in the bathroom, and he said, 'You're going to do it again,'" Casas explained. "I was like, 'Shhhh … Don't say it.' And then I did. And he told me, 'I told you.' So … Thanks, Ref.

"He calmed me down. I told him I was nervous. But he was like, 'Just go do the same thing you were doing the last couple of times.' I was like, 'Yeah, easier said than done.'"

Still, two innings later, Casas found himself with a chance at home run history. Four home runs in a game is the Major League record, a feat achieved by only 18 players in MLB history.

But Casas grounded out in his final at-bat. He still finished 3-for-4 with three homers and seven RBIs, treating the crowd of 32,307 to a dazzling display.

"It's funny," Casas said. "I was getting chirped at on deck, and nobody was telling me anything about the previous home run. They just wanted another one -- and another one, and another one. That's a credit to the fans, expecting not just greatness, but perfection. They bring the best out of me, and I try to put on a good show for them."

Casas' is the second three-home run game in the Majors this week. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani homered three times on Thursday en route to becoming the first player in MLB history to reach the 50-50 milestone.

It shows what kind of impact the 24-year-old can have on the Red Sox’s lineup.

"He's a good hitter. He's a good hitter, and he dominates the strike zone," Cora said. "So those are good signs."

This game was one of the highlights of Casas' baseball career. Casas had just one multi-homer game in MLB prior to Sunday, a two-home run game against Max Scherzer and the Mets on July 22, 2023, at Fenway. And he'd never had a three-homer game at any level. ("Not even in a video game," Casas quipped.)

And as the Red Sox won both games of the doubleheader, three teams ahead of them in the Wild Card race all lost -- the Royals (82-74), who are clinging to the second Wild Card spot amidst a seven-game losing streak, the Twins (81-75), who of course lost twice at the hands of Boston, and the Mariners (80-76), who fell to the Rangers. That mattered to Casas, too.

"It ranks well because of the magnitude of this game. We needed this game to stay in this fight against this team," Casas said. "This is something I'm going to look back at after the end of the year, and it's gonna be high up there."