“This is how it should be,” Sox manager Alex Cora said after watching his dirt-covered team extend rallies with three two-strike hits and fly around the bases for a third straight game. “I think early on [in the season], that wasn’t us — hitting homers and striking out. We’re in between. We will hit the ball out of the ballpark with certain guys, but the other guys will take their walks, they’ll get their singles, and they’ll put pressure on the opposition.”
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For years, Cora lamented the fact that his team wasn’t keeping pace with the style of play increasingly characterizing a number of teams around the league. Teams such as the Dodgers, Astros, Padres, and yes, the Rays sometimes looked like they had 10 men on defense and spent every at-bat with the bases loaded.
By comparison, the Red Sox often looked like they were moving in slow motion — especially at Tropicana Field. The Rays would run wild on the bases while the Sox seemed flat-footed. Balls hit into the Trop’s cavernous outfield gaps by the Rays would roll for what felt like days. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay featured elite defenders who seemingly got to every ball hit in the air, reducing the Red Sox to a homer-reliant offensive team.
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For three games, at least, the Red Sox flipped that script, an effort spearheaded by the team’s outfielders.
“The dynamic was kind of like a fast-break offense,” said catcher Reese McGuire.
Jarren Duran was a blur defensively and on the bases — most notably with his steal of home Tuesday — while delivering lightning strikes at the plate, collecting one extra-base hit in each contest.
Ceddanne Rafaela seemingly dove everywhere except into the tank of cownose stingrays beyond the fence in right-center, playing a key role in the Sox’ game-winning five-run outburst in the fifth inning by smashing an RBI single to the track in left-center and then outrunning a throw from left and diving across the plate to score the game-tying run from second base on a single.
And in right field, Wilyer Abreu shut down the Rays’ aggressiveness on the bases from the time he made a game-shifting throw to cut down Yandy Díaz at second when he tried to turn a hit down the line into a double in the first game of the series. From that point forward, it seemed that Rays runners anchored themselves to bases for safety anytime Abreu — who later blasted a two-run homer to right — fielded a ball.
“They create a lot of havoc on the bases and it makes my job a lot easier. I just kind of put the ball in play and let those guys run,” said Rob Refsnyder. “[There are] a lot of dynamic athletes in our lineup . . . I know the front office really focused on that and it’s really cool to see.”
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On one hand, the Red Sox are still extremely young and their lineup — particularly players such as Rafaela, David Hamilton, and Vaughn Grissom — will take some unavoidable lumps while working through inexperience. During that time, however, the team can limit the depths of its slumps by controlling its strikeout rate, using speed to leave opponents on the defensive even when the team isn’t slugging, and relying on pitching and defensive range to stifle opposing lineups.
“This is the environment we’re playing in. They’re changed the rules for this type of baseball,” said Cora. “It’s not that we’re going to run crazy out there, but you need athletic guys to win and to be competitive at this level. You have to be very athletic. Why? Because it’s not all the time you’re going to hit. You’re not going to hit the ball out of the ballpark all the time.
“But you can do the other stuff,” he added. “You can play defense every day. Speed is not going to slump. You get to first, you can steal second, you can score from second with a bloop single. And we’ve got a bunch of athletes. I’m happy with that.”
On Wednesday night, while enjoying the novelty of three straight victories at Tropicana Field, nearly everyone with the Red Sox seemed happy with the dynamic. Was it an instance of the Red Sox out-Raysing the Rays?
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“No. That’s a bad pun,” chided Liam Hendriks.
But it was a good style of play — and one that the Sox hope to replicate (and appropriately name) moving forward within the division.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
