The Boston Red Sox are going to hit.
We didn’t know if that statement would be true during the first few games of the season, but it was only a matter of time before the bats got going. Red Sox manager Alex Cora told us as much after his team backed him up on Thursday in an 8-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
“We will hit,” Cora said following the game, as seen on NESN. “It’s just a matter of time. (Rafael Devers) getting locked in. Alex (Bregman) hitting balls in the air to the pull side. (Kristian Cambell and Tristan) Casas, it’s a tough group. We hit some balls hard throughout the game, and we struck out a lot, too. It was a good game.”
Bregman, Campbell and Casas all left the yard, with the former and latter notching their first home runs on the season. Devers also continued not to strike out every time he picked up the bat, recording a single and scoring a run in the ninth inning.
Cora mentioned the strikeouts, but they seemed to come as a result of a more aggressive approach. It’s hard to argue about swinging and missing when you end up putting together the best offensive performance of the season to this point.
Boston’s struggles also might not have been so internal…
“I was watching the Rangers, and they threw two shutouts against the (Cincinnati Reds), so let’s give them credit,” Cora said. “We know what they did against us, but we’re building it up little by little.”
We have some more notes from Thursday’s contest between the Red Sox and Orioles:
— Campbell continued his hot streak, finishing 2-for-4 on the afternoon with his second home run of the season. Campbell is the first Red Sox player to ever have double-digit hits, six extra-base hits and four walks in their first seven games, per Elias.
— Bregman hit his first home run as a member of the Red Sox, blasting one into the left-field bleachers to give his club a lead they’d never lose — without the “torpedo bat” that he tried out on Wednesday.
“I stopped using it,” Bregman said postgame. “I used it yesterday but didn’t use it today. I used my normal bat today.”
— Casas rounded out the trio of homers, perhaps cleaning up his strikeout issue that plagued him during the first five games of the season.
“Being selective, it’s a two-way street. It’s a push and a pull,” Casas said. “You can’t have too much of one thing because they’ll take advantage of it, and too much of the other, it isn’t productive. It’s something I’ll bounce around with throughout the season.”
— The Red Sox will head home for their first series at Fenway Park on Friday. NESN will have full coverage of their series opening matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals starting one hour before first pitch — which is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET.