Sox snap skid behind O'Neill's 'incredible' power display 

DENVER -- After a rough four days out West, the Red Sox needed a lift on Tuesday night at Coors Field.

Tyler O'Neill quite literally provided one, crushing two mammoth homers that totaled a projected 902 feet per Statcast, propelling his team to a 6-0 victory over the Rockies that snapped a four-game losing streak coming out of the All-Star break.

If the monster blasts by O’Neill served as a nice stress reliever, so, too, did a strong pitching performance from No. 5 starter Cooper Criswell, who gave a short-handed bullpen a respite with the best performance of his career (seven scoreless innings).

“It’s one thing to come in here and throw five or six innings and post a couple of runs, but he threw seven shutout [innings] out there today,” said O’Neill. “He did a great job keeping them off balance, throwing 105 pitches. Environmentally, it’s a tall task to ask for and he did an incredible job today.”

The environment at Coors Field isn’t something that O’Neill or any hitter would ever complain about.

And O’Neill took full advantage, ripping homers 19 and 20 on the season at distances of 437 and 465 feet.

The latter homer was of the true tape-measure variety, as O’Neill mauled a Ty Blach sinker onto the concourse beyond the left-field seats at an exit velocity of 112.9 mph. It was the longest homer of O’Neill’s career, topping his 463-foot shot from April 30, 2021 at Pittsburgh.

As O’Neill rounded first, he had a smirk on his face while watching how far the ball soared through the night.

“I’m just trying to barrel the ball up there. It felt good. I can’t complain,” said O’Neill.

It was a mostly stress-free night for the Red Sox. But there was some brief angst when star slugger Rafael Devers rolled over his right shoulder in the sixth inning, trying to make a diving stop on a single by Ezequiel Tovar.

After a few minutes on the ground in obvious discomfort, Devers shook it off and stayed in the game.

“At the beginning I was a little bit scared, but after that, I was sure that it was nothing serious. But yeah, at the beginning I felt a little bit scared because I didn't land in a good way,” said Devers.

Once the Red Sox knew their most dangerous hitter dodged a serious injury, they could go back to enjoying what they witnessed from O’Neill.

“Ooooooh, incredible,” said Devers. “I’m impressed every time I get to see his home runs. Sometimes I’m hitting behind him. Sometimes I'm on base. But every time he hits the ball, I'm very impressed. Never is it a cheap home run. They’re always very deep home runs.”

The two-homer performance was the second in the last four days for O’Neill, who has come out of the All-Star break bashing to the tune of 10-for-23 (.435).

While Boston’s struggles against lefties have been well-chronicled of late, O’Neill hasn’t been a part of that problem.

He has mashed lefties, as evidenced by his nine homers and 1.161 OPS against them in 109 plate appearances.

By beating Rockies lefty Ty Blach, who lasted only 2 1/3 innings, the Red Sox improved to 13-18 against southpaw starters.

In truth, the Red Sox just needed a win of any kind on Tuesday. This one slimmed their deficit to six games in the American League East and one in the race for the third Wild Card spot.

With Boston’s losing streak coming right after the All-Star break and a week before the Trade Deadline, perhaps it was magnified a bit more than normal.

“It's kind of like Opening Day, right?” said manager Alex Cora. “You start off 1-4 or whatever, it's a big deal, but now we’re going to play a game [Wednesday], hopefully we win the series and then we'll get into the flow of the second part of the season.”