Boston’s 1-0 win over Cleveland on a cold Wednesday night at Fenway Park carried the shape of a postseason tune-up: a starter finishing strong, the late-inning bullpen back in formation, and one timely single enough to settle a game with no room for waste.
Sonny Gray closed his regular season with six scoreless innings, holding the Guardians to four hits and a walk over 77 pitches. He struck out three and finished 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA, giving Boston another reassuring look at a pitcher expected to take either Game 1 or Game 2 in next week’s American League Wild Card Series, which appears headed for Yankee Stadium.
“He looked fantastic,” manager Chad Tracy said. “He had his spin, was around the zone and got ahead. He looked really good. It was good to see.”
Gray’s work gave Tracy the chance to use the relief alignment Boston wants available when the calendar turns. Tyron Guerrero, back from the 15-day injured list, delivered his second consecutive effective appearance. Garrett Whitlock followed, and Aroldis Chapman handled the ninth in his first outing since Sept. 13, when a lat issue put him on the shelf.
Chapman needed only 12 pitches to strike out all three Cleveland hitters swinging. The 38-year-old closer collected his 402nd career save and his 35th of the season, a clean return that mattered as much as the final score for a club preparing for October.
“I felt good and happy to be able to go out there,” Chapman said. “My pitches and my stuff were very good today. I’m happy to be back. I feel normal. I feel like I’m at 100 percent right now.”
Tracy said the Guerrero-Whitlock-Chapman sequence had been mapped out before the game, regardless of the score. Boston’s manager simply needed his club to produce a lead before that portion of the bullpen took over, and the Red Sox did so in the sixth.
One single breaks through
Boston continued to have trouble converting its opportunities, going 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and leaving 11 men aboard. But Andruw Monasterio changed the night with two outs in the sixth, lining an RBI single to bring Jarren Duran home from second base. Monasterio had entered the at-bat in an 0-for-21 skid.
“I was fighting myself yesterday and tonight with my approach,” Monasterio said. “I just had to get through it, and I did.”
Neither lineup produced an extra-base hit. The teams combined for 17 singles, and Monasterio’s was the only one that reached the scoreboard. In a game built on narrow margins, it was enough for Boston to finish the job behind Gray and a restored late-game group.
There was one concern amid the encouraging signs. Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, making his first appearance after missing three weeks with a right quadriceps strain, left during the top of the third inning with tightness in his right hamstring. Rafaela said he believed it was a cramp and did not want to push for a double, while the club also chose caution with the postseason approaching.
“Maybe I wasn’t hydrated enough,” Rafaela said. “I got the cramp there and didn’t want to risk going for the double. Trace was trying to protect me, too, with big things ahead of us. I think that’s all it was.”
The Red Sox are hopeful the issue is minor. With the final regular-season homestand underway, Wednesday offered Boston a useful reminder of what it needs next week: Gray steady at the front, Chapman ready at the end, and enough healthy bodies in between to make one run stand up.
