ATLANTA — It was another ho-hum night of frustration and wasted opportunities for the Red Sox offense before Willson Contreras stepped to the plate in the eighth.
By the eighth, Boston had gone 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and plated just one run despite a bases-loaded, no-out chance in the fourth and two leadoff doubles against Bryce Elder in the first seven innings. All looked lost in the eighth, too, as Elder got two quick outs. Wilyer Abreu breathed some life into the Red Sox with a double, but it looked like a chance would again go to waste when Elder, a rising National League star, got back-to-back strikes to start his battle with Contreras.
After a slider in the dirt ran the count to 1-2, Elder tried another breaking ball with his 100th pitch of the night. Contreras reached down and demolished it into the left-field seats, hitting it 426 feet at 106.1 mph . The Red Sox, who had trailed all night, had an instant 3-2 lead and won by the same score.
“I got fired up a little bit,” said starter Payton Tolle , who went eight strong innings. “Heart rate spiked pretty hard. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a pretty good moment.”
Contreras, whose nine homers lead the Red Sox, had delivered perhaps the biggest swing of the season. With an eventful ninth that included a momentary loss of control and a dramatic kick save, closer Aroldis Chapman made sure Contreras’ heroics wouldn’t go to waste .
“Huge,” said interim manager Chad Tracy of Contreras’ homer. “He’s our guy. That guy’s our presence in the middle of the order who can do instant damage. That changed the dugout in a hurry with that swing.”
While the 34-year-old Contreras has had a strong first season in Boston to this point, things have not been going well for him at the plate lately. In a nine-game stretch that included a brief absence after being hit in the hand with a pitch, Contreras was in a 3-for-29 slump (.103) that ran to 3-for-30 when he struck out in the first. He reached on an error in his next at-bat and singled in the sixth before his no-doubt blast put the Red Sox on top in the eighth.
“For me, it’s a relief feeling,” he said through Carlos Villoria Benítez. “It’s like, ‘Oh, finally I’m able to have that big swing to help the team even moreso with how the last few weeks (have gone). That, for me, was the feeling in that moment.”
With Contreras’ swing, the Red Sox were able to hand the red-hot Braves just their fifth loss of May to this point.
“Very important for the team to win today,” Contreras said. “I think since yesterday, we’ve been having good contact and good at-bats. I’m happy today we were able to win.
“It feels good within the group when somebody gets a big swing like that. Even more against such a good team like the Braves.”
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