O'Neill's homecoming HR jumpstarts offensive surge in finale

ST. LOUIS -- Bloop and a blast?

For the Red Sox, Sunday’s getaway formula in a much-needed 11-3 victory was more like a mammoth early blast by Tyler O'Neill in his homecoming weekend to St. Louis, and then a series of bloops and other assorted forms of contact from his teammates that found patches of grass.

While salvaging the finale of a three-game series against the Cardinals, the Sox also rode Nick Pivetta’s tremendous start (six innings, one hit, one run, no walks, eight strikeouts).

Considering that the Red Sox had mostly been starved for offense since May 2 -- a tough 4-11 stretch -- they savored every ball that fell in.

“That's the beauty of this game,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “The numbers are going to say we hit with men in scoring position and it was two infield hits and a bloop single. It’s gonna even out at one point.”

O’Neill provided early thunder for a team that needed it, hitting a majestic shot in the top of the first that traveled a Statcast-projected 439 feet to left-center. It was O’Neill’s 40th career homer at Busch Stadium, but first in a visiting uniform.

“It was awesome,” O’Neill said. “Just like I remember it. Just to feel the positivity this entire weekend was really special for me.”

An impressive multi-tasker, O’Neill ripped his 11th homer of the season on a 3-0 pitch, just a minute or so after he spent his time in the on-deck circle mic’d up for a conversation heard by the streaming audience on Roku.

The return of O’Neill created plenty of emotion given the eventful arc of his time in St. Louis.

“T.O. was always great to me when I first came up, and he kind of took me under his wing a little bit,” said Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan. “He showed me what it was like to play for the Cardinals and I learned a lot from him in the outfield as well. To see him have success is great. I hate that he was against us, but I’m happy for him and his family.”

As for the Red Sox, they were happy to get those breaks which had been so elusive recently.

The most impressive bloop was Jarren Duran’s popup that third baseman Nolan Arenado lost in the sun for what was ruled an RBI triple, his MLB-leading seventh of the season.

It was impressive to see Duran’s hauling all the way to third on a ball that traveled 150 feet.

“You could tell early in the game, because I started in left, me and [third-base coach/outfield instructor Kyle Hudson] talked earlier, the sun was going to be a problem,” said Duran. “As soon as I saw him, I saw him [put his glove over his face], and I saw him going back, and that’s always a tough play. Huddy said he was surprised to have to make a call at third.”

In a three-run fifth, Wilyer Abreu and Dominic Smith brought in runs on hits that had exit velocities of 38.4 and 60 mph respectively.

“It was good to watch,” Cora said. “They kind of did this to us [Saturday]. Wily put the ball in play, Dom put the ball in play and good things happened.”

Rafael Devers put his team back into blast mode when he unloaded for a two-run homer in the top of the sixth, giving the star slugger a home run in five straight games to tie a club record.

“I mean, he can swing it,” said Cardinals left fielder Alec Burleson. “Me and [Arenado] have actually talked about his swing a lot. It's a swing that comes up in conversation.”

The difference for Devers on Sunday is that this was the first homer of the streak that came during a win.

“When you win, everything is sweeter, everything is better,” Devers said. “And you can tell the difference within the clubhouse when you win, which is what we want to do every single day.”

After a barrage of tense losses and mostly stressful wins over the past couple of weeks, the Sox finally enjoyed some breathing room on this steamy afternoon in St. Louis.

“Today, Nick was great,” said Cora. “We needed that. Obviously Raffy with another big swing, but I think it started with Tyler on the 3-0 count, put a good swing on it, hit the homer and we were able to breathe.”