James Paxton strikes out nine in win over Guardians

Ian Browne

CLEVELAND – The Red Sox's offense, out of sorts for the better part of the past two weeks, quite simply needed some time to gather themselves on Tuesday night.

That's where James Paxton came in handy.

The veteran lefty turned in a gutty performance on a night his team needed it most, firing seven innings to lead the Red Sox to a 5-4 victory over the Guardians in the opener of a six-game road trip at Progressive Field.

A big night from Paxton didn't necessarily seem in the offing when he labored in the first inning, throwing 28 pitches and allowing two runs. But he was at his Big Maple best for the rest of the night, allowing just the two runs and striking out nine.

Back in Spring Training, Paxton informed manager Alex Cora what his formula would be on most nights.

"That's something he always talked about," said Cora. "We met with him in Spring Training, and he went over the way the outings go. The stuff is gonna get better. Early on he's gonna know if it's the cutter or the curveball. But the fastball, it will play late in games. That's the guy I remember seeing in ‘17, so it was good to see there was another gear with that fastball after the fourth inning."

With Chris Sale out indefinitely with a left shoulder injury that the Red Sox are still getting a handle on, Paxton's importance has grown.

And he has delivered in four of his five starts in his comeback from Tommy John surgery and an assortment of other injuries that had limited him to a total of six starts over the previous three seasons.

"We feel really confident whenever Paxton is taking the bump right now," said Red Sox outfielder Rob Refsnyder. "He's got pretty special stuff as you see. A high 90s fastball, kind of just bearing in. He gives us ace-caliber stuff."

Paxton led with his heat, throwing 68 percent fastballs over a 106-pitch performance in which he topped out at 97.7 mph and generated 24 swings and misses.

"Well, he's got really good stuff," said Guardians manager Terry Francona. "We came out of the chute and got a couple, but then he kind of locked it in. He's never had a problem with his stuff. He just hasn't been able to stay healthy. He's good."

When Paxton went out for the bottom of the seventh inning, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" never sounded so good.

"It was great," said Paxton, who turned in his first start of at least seven innings since Sept. 3, 2019. "That's always the goal, is to hear that seventh-inning stretch song when you go out there."

And once Paxton held Cleveland off again in that seventh, trailing 2-1 at the time, his offense at last seized the opportunity he provided for them, jumping in front with a four-spot.

"I was confident that if I held them at two, we were going to get it clicking at some point," Paxton said. "[Guardians starter Shane] Bieber was really good tonight. And we kept on battling and kept on fighting. That's what this team does."

In a methodical eighth-inning rally, the biggest hits came from Triston Casas (single off the wall in center to load the bases with nobody out), Refsnyder (go-ahead RBI single) and Pablo Reyes (insurance RBI single).

Remarkably, 11 of Boston's 31 wins this season have come when trailing in the sixth inning or later -- the most in the Majors. However, those late-game rallies had been lacking of late.

"We’ve got to get back to earlier in the year of just grinding at-bats," said Refsnyder. "It's not going to be pretty all the time. As an offense, just try to pass the baton. All those clichés. But with our offense, the way it's constructed right now, I think we have to do that. Hopefully guys come through with a big hit here and there. But working the counts and things like that, some old, boring baseball. We did a pretty good job of that tonight."

And Paxton was the catalyst for giving them that chance.