'He's the leader': Bogaerts jolts Red Sox with three-run blast

BOSTON -- On the one-week anniversary of his eruption in Baltimore -- an eruption at an umpire -- Xander Bogaerts slammed his bat to the ground once again on Friday night.

This time, the circumstances were much different.

Boston’s star shortstop and veteran leader unloaded for the type of game-turning knock that had eluded him for weeks. As a three-run homer soared over the Green Monster and onto Lansdowne Street in the bottom of the sixth inning, Bogaerts stood and watched. And then he spiked his bat to the ground as if to say, “What took so long?”

It was the signature moment for the Red Sox in a come-from-behind, 9-8 victory over the Rays in the opener of a three-game series at Fenway Park.

“It felt real good. I’m not going to lie,” said Bogaerts. “It felt real good off the bat.”

As Bogaerts finished his trot around the bases, he bashed forearms with J.D. Martinez three times. In the dugout, he heartily high-fived his manager and his teammates after mashing his 11th homer of the season. Bogaerts entered the night with underwhelming numbers in August: a .219/.266/.356 line with two homers and five RBIs in 79 plate appearances.

“It’s been a struggle,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “He put together some good swings today. In that at-bat, he let it loose and he got to a fastball and hit it in the air, which is good.”

There is still time for Bogaerts to get hot again and bottle the swing that has led to so many great moments in his career.

“He’s the leader. He’s captain of this team and he’s a stud,” said winning pitcher Michael Wacha. “We need him to kind of play the way he plays and he’s a big part of our lineup whenever we’re going good.”

As everyone around the Red Sox knows, Bogaerts has looked more out of sorts than normal this season. It has been a combination of things, including his uncertain contract situation, the Aug. 1 trade of his close friend Christian Vázquez and the unusual grind for the fluidity in his batting stroke.

Bogaerts was again feeling the weight of trying to find his best swing in Friday’s game, which is why he savored the moment when he connected on a 1-2 fastball from reliever Shawn Armstrong and mashed it a Statcast-projected 386 feet.

“I was down in the count,” said Bogaerts. “I felt like I was swinging at strikes. It just wasn’t hitting my barrel. I felt like I had a hole in my bat for a minute. He missed in and I saw it good and put a good swing on it.”

It had been a tough start to this homestand for the Red Sox, enduring a three-game sweep by the Blue Jays, capped by an exasperating Thursday night finale in which they couldn’t get the go-ahead run home from third with nobody out in the eighth or ninth inning.

The night was pretty misery-inducing for a team that lost its fourth game in a row and fell to five games below .500.

On Friday, the Red Sox had reason to smile again. And not just because of Bogaerts. Wacha (9-1, 2.53 ERA) bounced back from giving up two homers and four runs over his first three innings to putting up three straight zeros to complete his six-inning performance.

And two players who hadn’t done much offensively this season -- Kiké Hernández and Kevin Plawecki -- started the comeback from down 4-1 by getting three hits apiece over the first five innings.

But the big blast was provided by Bogaerts, who increased the lead to 8-4 with one swing. That proved to be even bigger when reliever Ryan Brasier gave up four runs in the eighth, as Boston’s lead was slimmed to 9-8.

“That was huge right there,” said Wacha. “As you all know, we’ve been struggling here lately and just kind of not clicking as a team. That was huge right there to drive in guys in scoring position and come through with that big homer there.”

With Trevor Story expected to be activated from the injured list on Saturday, perhaps the Red Sox will at last start performing to their capabilities on offense.

“Like, I said, we trust these guys. They will hit at one point. They will,” said Cora. “For us to get on a real run, it has to be offensively. We will do enough pitching-wise, but we have to hit.”