The Boston Red Sox Thursday, May 27, 2021 * The Boston Globe The Red Sox had a big inning, then waited out a big rain delay, to defeat the Braves Julian McWilliams Rain poured down on Fenway Park shortly after the Red Sox opened the floodgates in the sixth inning Wednesday. The Sox trailed, 4-3, heading into the bottom of the inning with Braves starter Drew Smyly still on the hill. Yet with runners on second and third, Xander Bogaerts’s slow dribbler to Braves third baseman Austin Riley gave a hustling Alex Verdugo enough time to score. The hustling Verdugo slid underneath the tag of catcher William Contreras, tying the game at four apiece. The play, which was challenged by the Braves but upheld, led to the Sox’ four-run inning and the club’s 9- 5 win. After a two-hour, 53-minute rain delay, the Red Sox ultimately found a way to split the two-game set against the Braves. Rafael Devers, who roped a two-run homer off Smyly in the third inning to center, followed Bogaerts in the sixth and thumped an RBI double off the left field wall. That was Devers’s 56th extra-base hit to the opposite field since 2019, nine more than any player in that span. “Devers just hits it hard,” said Bogaerts after the game, shedding light on Devers’s skill of using the opposite field. “It’s coming hard at you. That’s all I know. So you better get out of the way or you’re going to get hit with it.” Christian Vázquez later singled in a pair of runs, stretching the Sox’ lead to 7-4. Then the rain delay came. Wednesday turned into Thursday. “I don’t think the game should have really continued, especially with that second rain,” starting pitcher Nick Pivetta said. “I mean, if the second rain didn’t come, OK, I understand. It’s just not good for players’ health, injuries. Luckily, we went unscathed.” Once the game resumed, Pivetta’s outing was well into the past, including the two-run homer he surrendered to Riley in the fifth. He yielded four runs in six innings against a Braves offense that doesn’t get cheated on their swings — an offense that is unapologetic in its attempt to do damage on each pitch. Despite the Braves’ inconsistent start to the season, they led the league in homers (78), while also tallying the third-best OPS (.756). They are, indeed, a potent offense. Wednesday was a tussle for Pivetta even though he struck out nine because the Braves offense stayed true to form. Ozzie Albies roped an RBI triple to right-center off Red Sox starter Pivetta in the top of the first inning. The ball got by the overzealous Hunter Renfroe in right, ultimately allowing Freddie Freeman to score from first. In that same frame, Dansby Swanson laced an RBI double over the head of Renfroe — who appeared as if he got a bad read — adding to the lead. Then in the third, Contreras’s sac fly put the Sox in a 3-0 hole. Nevertheless, the Sox offense has been one of the best all-around offenses in baseball this season and Renfroe responded with a solo shot in the top of the second. Pivetta, meanwhile, found his way after his second inning by increasing his curveball usage. “They were coming up pretty aggressive so I just made a quick game change,” Pivetta said. Josh Taylor took the seventh inning and after hitting Ronald Acuña with a pitch, he retired the next two batters before manager Alex Cora summoned Adam Ottavino from the Sox bullpen. Ottavino covered the next 1 ⅓ innings, retiring each of the four hitters he faced. The Sox carried a five-run lead into the ninth, but a Contreras homer off reliever Matt Andriese followed by an Acuña hit through the right side forced Cora to go to his closer in Matt Barnes. With Braves’ Freeman at the dish, Barnes induced a double play to end the contest. “We got back to our principles as an offense,” said Cora, who has stressed the importance of situational hitting to his players. “You saw what happened. We ended up scoring nine.” Alex Verdugo battling through hamstring tightness, but unconcerned Julian McWilliams Alex Verdugo is still hampered a bit by left hamstring tightness. At times, you can see him pull up when running out certain grounders. “It’s just one of those things,” Verdugo said before the Red Sox’ 9-5 win against the Braves Wednesday to split the two-game set. “It’s there, but I’m not going to say it’s going to fully impact me like that. I just feel like I got to be cautious with it. There are certain plays when I’m running, maybe I shut it down just a little bit.” Verdugo, who went 1 for 4 Wednesday, originally started feeling the tightness in his left hamstring as a result of right calf tightness. He doesn’t see it having a long term impact on him. “I didn’t want to fully put a lot of weight on my right leg,” Verdugo said. “So I felt like my left leg probably took over a little bit. And that’s why I got this. But our training staff, everybody, we’re on a good path, man. My calf is feeling a lot better. We’re starting to figure out what’s going on in there, doing a couple little activating and treatment things that are just putting me in a lot better place.” Verdugo is a key part of this Red Sox team, particularly the top of the lineup. In 46 games, he’s hitting .292/.353/.456 with six homers. Having him healthy is essential, particularly in the midst of this tough stretch of games. Before the end of June, the Red Sox have two series each against the Astros and Yankees, plus meetings with the Blue Jays and Rays. “We’re going to keep working, keep grinding,” Verdugo said. “I feel like once the legs start coming back a little bit, everything else is going to start to really take off. So you got to go through it, fight it, and work with what you got today. It’s a long season.” Ryan Brasier getting close Ryan Brasier (left calf strain) threw live batting practice Wednesday and is getting close to a rehab assignment, per manager Alex Cora. Brasier will throw a bullpen over the weekend, then another live batting practice. From there, the team will see where he’s at. If all goes well, Brasier could go on a rehab assignment next week. “It seems that way. It feels that way,” Cora said. “We’ve just got to make sure with him that he’s physically fit, which is very important. Mechanics are very important with him. You saw it in ’19 and ’20 when he’s gone off [mechanics], and it doesn’t go the way we want.” In 2019, Brasier struggled to a 4.85 ERA in 55⅔ innings. He recovered somewhat in the shortened 60-game 2020, striking out a career-high 10.8 batters per nine innings to go along with a 3.96 ERA. In the absence of Brasier, the Red Sox haven’t settled on a seventh-inning guy. Instead, Cora has mixed and matched. Brasier could serve as the bridge to Adam Ottavino and Matt Barnes. “We believe he’s getting close,” Cora reiterated. Into the night When the Red Sox took the lead with a four-run bottom of the sixth inning on Wednesday, the teams had nearly three hours to think about it. Rain halted the game just after 9 p.m., with no updates for more than two hours until 11:36, when the grounds crew rushed to prepare the field for an announced midnight restart. They did so, with the delay officially clocking in at two hours, 53 minutes . After Friday’s game against the Marlins, Cora will travel to Puerto Rico to see his daughter, Camila, graduate from high school. Bench coach Will Venable will manage Saturday, with Cora planning to be back Sunday. “I wish I could be there more, but obviously with the guidelines and protocols, it’s hard,” Cora said. “She’s still rooting for the Red Sox, rooting for dad, rooting for baseball, and now it’s our time to root for her. I cannot wait for Saturday, I think it’s probably the biggest day of my life” . Boos showered down on Pablo Sandoval for the second night in a row. Back with Atlanta, Sandoval’s five-year, $95 million deal with the Red Sox back in the 2014 offseason turned out to be one of the worst contracts in franchise history. He played in just 161 games and struggled with staying in shape before the Red Sox cut ties in the summer of 2017. “They don’t treat me that bad here,” Sandoval said of the fans. “Just things don’t go well sometimes. I’m happy to be back and winning games — that’s the most important thing. Try to help my team to win games.” Sandoval was 0 for 4 with a strikeout Wednesday, dropping his average to .261 in 36 games this year. Yankee starter Corey Kluber is headed to the injured list with a right shoulder strain. Yankee first baseman Luke Voit also hit the IL with a grade 2 right oblique strain. ‘We believe that he’s going to contribute this year.’ A closer look at Chris Sale’s possible return to the Red Sox Alex Speier Slowly, intrigue is forming on the horizon.