Red Sox reward loyal crowd with 5-run rally in 7th

BOSTON -- The rally -- lacking from the Red Sox’s repertoire of late -- came out of nowhere on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.

Down one run with nine outs to go, the Boston bats erupted for a full-fledged five-run rally in the bottom of the seventh en route to a 6-3 victory over the Rockies.

Heading into a Thursday off-day that precedes a three-game set at home against the Yankees, the last thing the Sox wanted was to be swept at home by Colorado (29-41).

Thanks to the offense coming to life, manager Alex Cora’s team can take at least a slice of momentum into their day of R&R.

“Very big,” said Alex Verdugo, who supported the cause with his bat (three hits, two RBis) and arm (outfield assist). “We were on the verge of getting swept. So to just take one of them is big, and obviously it gives us a little bit of momentum going into this next series.”

Overshadowed by the lull from the offense, Boston’s starting rotation has been strong lately. And this time, winning pitcher Garrett Whitlock (seven innings, six hits, two runs, one walk, seven strikeouts) turned in a performance that didn’t get wasted.

This is because the offense got it going just in time.

On a night Cora decided to rest arguably his two best hitters -- Rafael Devers and Masataka Yoshida -- others stepped up.

The signature moment of the rally came from the bat of Rob Refsnyder, who laced a drive to right field that Nolan Jones sold out on for a diving catch and instead had it go by him for a two-run triple that snapped a 2-2 tie. Two nights ago, Jones robbed Devers of a home run. This time, the right fielder lost Refsnyder’s liner in the lights.

“Honestly, it’s a really good feeling having [Jarren] Duran at third base when you’re hitting,” said Refsnyder. “I just want to get a ball to the outfield. I was just thankful to get it into the outfield and I knew Jarren would score from there. The first night, he made that play at the wall. I’m thankful that it dropped. A triple is a lot better than a sac fly.”

And it was the type of break the Red Sox (34-35) had been lacking for days.

“Yeah, it's been frustrating,” said Refsnyder. “There's been a lot of traffic on the bases. Guys have been honestly just lining out a bunch, hitting at guys. It just feels like one of those stretches where you just feel really, really unlucky. So yeah, it was really nice to see some fall in, and for us, some really big at-bats. It was really nice to see some land.”

You could almost sense the collective exhale from the Red Sox after Refsnyder’s hit. Justin Turner followed by belting an RBI single through a drawn-in infield. Verdugo lofted one off the Monster, as Turner narrowly scored from first with a hook slide.

The Fenway crowd, which sat through a rain delay of two hours and two minutes prior to the first pitch, roared with approval.

“I came out early to kind of get loose again and just to see all the fans in the stands, I can't say enough about that,” said Refsnyder. “Especially because it's been frustrating at home. We're trying to do our best to get runs across, but to have the fans stick with us through that long of a rain delay, that meant a lot.

“Not many stadiums would do that honestly -- to have that long of a rain delay and have that great of a crowd. We felt that. We were talking about that in the dugout like, ‘Look at this crowd still.’ We were pretty thankful for that.”

With the Yankees coming to town next, the crowd will undoubtedly be rocking for the latest rivalry weekend.

The Red Sox will try to start the type of sustained run they’ve lacked for a month.

“We needed to win [this one], honestly,” said Refsnyder. “To get swept would have been not a great feeling going into the off-day. This makes the off-day that much better. It makes guys extra motivated to come back in on Friday against a good Yankees team. We feel good but we’ve just got to start playing better and executing better.

“We have to win series and win games. We're one game under 500. We feel close but we've just got to keep going, keep pushing and hopefully get some more wins.”