O'Neill homers twice in homecoming as Sox flex power

TORONTO -- It was a couple of hours before game time on Monday when a Toronto-based reporter asked Red Sox manager Alex Cora to describe the identity of his team.

“Shoot, man, we went from hitting a lot of home runs and striking out [earlier in the season] to all of a sudden, we’ve become the go-go Sox to be honest with you,” Cora said. “We’ve just got a bunch of athletes.”

For at least one night, the Red Sox went back to the long ball, bashing four of them in the first three innings of a 7-3 victory over the Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game series.

This display of power came a night after Cora’s club notched a team record of nine stolen bases in a win over the Yankees.

What has been an up-and-down season so far for the 38-35 Red Sox might be gaining some momentum. After winning consecutive home series against the Phillies and Yankees -- the teams with the two best records in the Majors -- Boston started this six-game road trip auspiciously.

“It’s just a dynamic lineup,” said Tyler O'Neill, the British Columbia native who bashed two homers in his third career game in his home country. “We can do a lot. We’ve got speed and we can pop the ball out of the yard anytime. There's lots of ways we can put the runs on the board. We’ve done a good job of that of late.”

It was O’Neill, fittingly, who got the party started when he went deep to left with two outs in the first. For O’Neill, it was his first homer in Toronto. He’d hit a second just two innings later.

Was the seventh multi-homer game of O’Neill’s career more special because it happened in Canada?

“Definitely,” said O’Neill. “I want to show up in front of the home crowd, I guess you could say. I saw a lot of maple leafs walking around today. So that's fun to see. Made sure to get my Tim Horton’s this morning. I'm enjoying being up north for a little bit. Awesome fans up here … and it’s a beautiful ballpark as well.”

Rafael Devers followed O’Neill’s first homer with one of his own. The back-to-back shots by Boston’s 3-4 combo staked winning pitcher Nick Pivetta, another son of British Columbia, to a 2-0 lead before he threw his first pitch.

Ceddanne Rafaela, the rookie who has swung the bat well of late after a slow start, also went deep, hitting his eighth of the season out to left-center.

“I think the group has done an amazing job helping him with his hands,” said Cora. “I think they're in a better place right now. He actually has more time to make [swing] decisions and he's hitting [the] ball hard.”

In his last 43 at-bats dating back to June 6, Rafaela’s batting line is .442/.467/.558. During the surge, he’s raised his average from .202 to .243, all the while continuing to play superb defense in center field.

While the offense took center stage on Monday, Pivetta played a big part as well, going seven innings for his second career victory at Rogers Centre. He scattered nine hits and allowed three runs while throwing 109 pitches.

“It's always very exciting for me to pitch in my home country,” said Pivetta. “My mom is here today with my aunt, so I think that's really great. And I was happy that we could put a win together and have a good day and be consistent as we were today.”

Consistency will be a key word in the coming weeks if the Red Sox want to prove themselves as legitimate contenders. They trail by 2 1/2 games in the American League Wild Card standings and will try to convince the front office to buy rather than sell prior to the July 30 Trade Deadline.

“We're playing pretty good. We’re pitching the ball well. The boys are hitting the ball well,” said O’Neill. “The boys are doing well.”