You can't really blame DeMarlo Hale.
The decision to intentionally walk J.D. Martinez in the ninth inning Saturday in order to face Alex Verdugo seemed like a sound one.
The game was tied with two outs. Martinez' run meant nothing considering pinch-runner Taylor Motter and Rafael Devers were already on base. The Sox slugger was hitting .356, carrying a 1.229 OPS with runners in scoring position and two outs.
And, oh yeah, Verdugo hadn't been a huge fan of lefty pitching.
The lefty-hitting outfielder had his moments against southpaws, most notably turning in one of the season's best at-bats on April 15 in Minnesota that resulted in a key three-run double. (After which Alex Cora proclaimed he wouldn't be pinch-hitting for Verdugo against lefties the rest of the season.)
But since that 10-pitch at-bat at Target Field, Verdugo's batting average was just .211 against left-handers, with a .514 OPS. And he hadn't managed a hit against a lefty since Aug. 25.
But emotions can be a powerful thing. That's what both Verdugo and Hale found out with one swing of the bat.
After getting down to Cleveland lefty Alex Young 0-2, took a ball before fouling off one more pitch. Then came the 87 mph cutter which Verdugo stayed on and turned around at a rate of 108.9 mph for the game-winner.
"Yeah, I think we’re all competitors. We all have stuff that makes us tick, or get extra locked in or fired up," Verdugo said. "That was one of them. You don’t ever want to be the guy that they load the bases for or intentionally walk someone to get to you. But in this game, you do understand matchups and understand that it’s the right baseball play. But in those big moments, things like that, you try to -- for me, I took it personal. It helped me lock in a little extra and wanted to get it done that much more. I’m just happy that everything worked out for us."
The hit meant a lot to Verdugo, but even more to a Red Sox team that used the moment as more proof that things had begun to turn in their direction.
The team's sixth walk-off win marked its fourth straight victory, with the Red Sox now having gone 4-0-1 in their last five series. It's a run that has left Cora's club just 1/2 game in back of the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot, and four games ahead of both the A's and Mariners.
“I think, for us, it felt like a gut punch after gut punch with all the guys, the Covid guys, coming down," Verdugo said. "We were uncertain, like, hey, are we going to reschedule these games or are we going to play through it, what are we doing to do? That was kind of how it felt for the first day or two out there. Once we realized like, hey man, we’re playing through this, we’re not getting that, hey guys, we’ll make up these games later when you guys have your guys back. No, we’re playing. We’re playing every day. So I think that, once we all realized that, it was a mentality, like a switch just kind of flipped and it was like, 'Oh, alright, we don’t have our guys like that but we still have guys who can contribute and have professional at-bats and are big leaguers.'
"We just went out there, grinded, and I felt like these last couple of games, we’ve been playing really good baseball. Fundamentally sound with starting pitchers doing well, turning key double plays, getting groundballs when you need them. I remember in Tampa, Whit had a couple of guys at third with less than two outs and getting a groundball, going home with a good throw, and cutting them down. It’s been clean baseball. Clean baseball and I think it’s kind of firing us up right now. We’re understanding, like, hey, man, we can do this, we can keep playing, we can keep grinding and obviously we’re going to have a couple of our key guys come back here shortly. It’s just a mindset for us. We know we can play. We know we can compete against anyone so just go out there and bring it.”