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The Boston Red Sox Monday, May 14, 2018 * The Boston Globe The bullpen bailed out Drew Pomeranz, and the Red Sox won the series Peter Abraham TORONTO — Red Sox manager Alex Cora knew before Sunday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays that he would not have Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith available out of the bullpen. Kimbrel had pitched in three of the previous four games, Smith in five of the last six. And the Sox don’t have a scheduled day off until May 21. What was a small problem became a big one when starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz couldn’t get an out in the fifth inning and was pulled after 103 extra-tedious pitches. The Sox had a one-run lead and limited means to protect it. “You find a way,” said Matt Barnes, one of the relievers who helped the Red Sox close out a 5-3 victory. “That’s really it. You find a way.” Hector Velazquez, Barnes, Heath Hembree, and Joe Kelly combined for five shutout innings as the Sox finished 6-4 on their 11-day road trip, winning three of the last four. For Cora, it was a game he will remember. “Managing at the big league level, it’s not that easy, because there are certain days that there’s nothing you can do,” he said. “You want to match up, and you have to trust your guys.” The Sox return home tied with the Yankees atop the division but well positioned to make a move. Starting Monday, they play 19 of their next 26 games at Fenway Park. The Yankees play 19 of their next 25 on the road. “I feel like we’re in a good spot,” said J.D. Martinez, who homered and drove in three runs. “We’ve had two long trips already, and we’re still right there.” Righthander Joe Biagini started for Toronto in place of Marcus Stroman, who was placed on the disabled list on Friday with shoulder fatigue. Biagini had allowed 12 earned runs on 16 hits over 8⅔ innings in two starts against the Red Sox last season. Sunday was more of the same, as he gave up four runs over 4⅔innings. Andrew Benintendi got things started, singling in the first inning ahead of Martinez’s 10th home run. It was a typical Martinez homer in that he kept his hands inside a pitch on the inner half and took it the other way to right field. Struggling Jackie Bradley Jr. contributed to the offense in the third inning when he drew a leadoff walk. Mookie Betts followed with a hit-and-run single to right field, sending Bradley to third. Biagini then walked both Martinez and Mitch Moreland to force in a run. Moreland saw 10 pitches in his at-bat, earning the RBI. Betts singled in the fifth inning, stole second, and scored on single by Martinez, also to right field. Martinez has 33 RBIs with the season a quarter over. The Sox are getting what they paid for from him. With a 4-0 lead, it should have been easy for Pomeranz to clean up what had been an erratic, slowly paced outing to that point. He had put six runners on base but avoided any runs scoring. Teoscar Hernandez and Josh Donaldson led off the bottom of the fifth inning with singles. The Jays were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position to that point, but Justin Smoak ended that frustration with a two-run double to right-center. When Pomeranz walked Yangervis Solarte, he was done. “Nothing felt good coming out of my hand,” said Pomeranz, who allowed five hits, walked five, and struck out six. “I felt like I wasn’t throwing anything where I wanted to.” Pomeranz split the fingernail on the index finger of his left hand while pitching against the Yankees last week. He said that he cut down his usual throwing routine between starts, and that affected his command. Velazquez cleaned up the mess pretty well. He struck out Kevin Pillar, gave up an RBI single to Russell Martin, and fielded a ball off the bat of Kendrys Morales to start a double play. Velazquez got through the sixth inning with the 4-3 lead still intact. The Sox turned to Barnes in the seventh. Pitching for the fourth time in five days, Barnes allowed a one-out single by Solarte. Then, with two outs, Martin drove a fastball down the line in left field. Blue Jays third base coach Luis Rivera, looking for the game-tying run, waved Solarte home. But the Red Sox executed a perfect relay. Benintendi dug the ball out of the corner and hit Xander Bogaerts, who calmly made a strong throw to the plate, where Christian Vazquez put the tag on Solarte. “Nobody panicked,” Cora said. “Benny did an outstanding job of getting to the ball. Good throw to Xander. Sometimes as an infielder you want to rush yourself. He didn’t.” Benintendi wasn’t quite as impressed. “I bounced it to Xander, but it was perfect off the turf,” he said. “He made a great throw to the plate.” Hembree worked around a leadoff single by Morales in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Kelly got three outs on four pitches, retiring Donaldson, Smoak, and Solarte for his second save in 116 career relief appearances. That made it a satisfying day for the bullpen. “You look back, and those are some fun ones,” Kelly said. “Especially when you piece it together.” Jackie Bradley Jr.’s confidence grows with progress at plate Peter Abraham TORONTO — Jackie Bradley Jr. was 1 for 3 with a walk, a run scored, and a stolen base in Sunday’s 5-3 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays. That represented a small step forward for the center fielder. Bradley’s single in the ninth inning was his first hit since May 4. He entered the game with only five hits in his previous 54 at-bats and had struck out 26 times. That dropped his OPS to .510. “Knowing what you need to do is not necessarily the same as doing it,” said Bradley, who was benched for three games before returning to the lineup on Saturday. “I feel good physically. I’ll continue to work.” The hitting coaches have suggested adjustments that are centered on his hands and how he starts his swing. Manager Alex Cora sees it as having better rhythm at the plate. “It’s always about minor adjustments,” Bradley said. “Mentally, it’s frustrating, to tell you the truth. But I know I put the work in, and I prepare.” Bradley hit .255 with a .793 OPS, 53 home runs, and 193 RBIs over 363 games from 2015 to 2017, so the ability is there. But he has long been a streaky hitter prone to strikeouts, too. Bradley was hitting .171 with a .519 OPS on May 12 last season. He hit .257 with a .761 OPS the rest of the way and finished fifth on the team in WAR. “It doesn’t get any easier,” Bradley said. “But I’m confident in myself I can help the offense.” Running on empty The Sox stole six bases in eight attempts during the series. But they were twice caught trying to steal third for no good reason. It happened Saturday with Christian Vazquez and on Sunday with Brock Holt in the ninth inning, when he tried a delayed steal. “We need to address that,” Cora said. “If we’re going to go, we better be safe. We better be safe. We have to be 100 percent sure we’re going to make it.” The Sox are second in the majors with 19 outs on the bases, a statistic that does not include the six times they have been caught stealing and two pickoffs. Much like last season, the Sox are giving away too many outs. “Little by little they understand the value of the out,” Cora said. “It’s worth more than just taking a gamble. Offensively, we’re good. It’s not like we have to get to second or we have to get to third to score. We have to be smarter than what we’ve shown so far.” Quick call On Mother’s Day, Cora was asked what he remembered about telling his mom, Iris, that he had been named manager of the Sox. It was last Oct. 20, just before Game 6 of the American League Championship Series game between the Astros and Yankees. Cora, the Houston bench coach, was at Minute Maid Park when Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski called to tell him he had the job. “What do I do?” Cora said. “Do I celebrate? We’re down, 3-2 [in the series]. So I had to do some work. So I called her. I don’t know what the reaction was. I was like, ‘Hey, this is happening,’ and I hung up.” Cora’s mother has been an integral part of his baseball career. “She means so much to us,” he said. “I lost my dad when I was 13. She became everything to us.” Cora sometimes calls his mother a few times a week, other times not for a week or two. His brother Joey, the third base coach of the Pirates, has called every Sunday without fail since he was in college in the 1980s. “The Pirates are playing well and us, too,” Cora said. “Hopefully it’s a great day for her, too.

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