Roman Anthony (Oblique) Exits in 11-7 Red Sox Win over Guardians

BOSTON — Roman Anthony left Tuesday’s game against the Guardians holding his left side near his lower back after striking out in the fourth inning. He labored to the dugout with his bat still in hand and immediately exited to the clubhouse. Nate Eaton grabbed a glove after Cleveland retired Alex Bregman and ran to right field, Boston quickly pulling Anthony out as Boston shifted to defense.

“I felt it today on the check swing, pitch before I swung and missed for a strikeout, just pretty sudden,” Anthony said after the game. “I’ll see tomorrow after the MRI … this is definitely worse (than the back injury earlier this season) in terms of the way it feels, but that’s right now. Again, I’ll just have to re-evaluate how I feel tomorrow … I wish I knew. I haven’t dealt with something like this before, so I’d be lying if I said I knew.”

“It sucks.”

The Red Sox led, 5-1, at the time entering a quiet fifth inning. Garrett Crochet had retired 11 straight Guardians and appeared on the verge of another stellar start and win. Then, he yielded a leadoff home run to Austin Hedges on the second pitch, the first of three blasts in the inning that nearly ruined his night in the worst start of his Red Sox tenure. Ceddanne Rafaela picked him up with a game-tying run in the seventh before the Sox scored four runs in the eighth to secure their third straight win, 11-7, over Cleveland.

“It is what it is, gotta move on. This interview looked a lot different 45 minutes ago, but that was a huge win,” Crochet said. “I wish that they could’ve picked me up after giving up one run, but it is what it is. I think that just goes what to show what this offense is capable of, and we’re never out of any game … I felt like I was getting the four-seam glove side a little more, that had been a big thing … was getting the sweeper below until I didn’t on that one … stuff felt really good, just made a couple of bad pitches there in the sixth.”

Eaton filled in for Anthony with two hits, including one to keep the eighth going after the Guardians recorded two quick outs with a runner on first. Bregman pushed Rafaela, who had reached on a fielders choice, home with a go-ahead infield single. Then, Jarren Duran and Trevor Story launched back-to-back doubles to give Boston enough breathing room to stay away from Aroldis Chapman on back-to-back days. Since Duran’s inside the park home run on Sunday woke up a slumping offense, the Sox have scored 18 runs on 36 hits.

But Boston already lost Wilyer Abreu in August with a calf injury that he’s made limited progress in recovering from. Alex Cora had announced before the game that Abreu still hadn’t started running after being told by trainers to slow his rehab last week. The Sox believe he’ll return, though they planned for Anthony to stagger Abreu’s right field duties once he did.

“Obviously, losing Roman today is a gut punch,” Bregman said. “One of the best players in all of baseball, but we gotta continue to push along. Nobody needs to try and do more, nobody needs to try and do more than they’re capable of. They just need to try and execute their game plan the same way that we’ve been talking about all year long, and continue to find ways to win, whether it’s high-scoring games, pitching and playing good defense, stealing a big base, moving a guy over.”

“It’s meaningful games in September, and all that matters is winning. I think the guys in here have the right mentality. Obviously today was a bit of gut punch for us, but everyone in here is mature enough to know to show up tomorrow ready to execute and continue to do that for the rest of the month and into the postseason.”

• Crochet gave up a home run for the fifth straight game going back to his Aug. 11 start: “I was actually talking to Fatsy the other day, how would you game plan against me? A lot of it was looking out over, anticipating the ball coming into you. So that would explain the Hedges (home run), that would explain the Rocchio one, but the one to Noel was kind of crazy and just gotta tip your cap, but up until this point, I’ve given up my fair share of solos this year, last year, years prior to that. It’s just kind of is what it is. For me, it’s limiting the multiple-run homers, which obviously I didn’t tonight and I think that’s why, ultimately, the start collapsed on itself.”
• The Red Sox will start LHP Brennan Bernardino on Wednesday in the series finale against the Guardians with RHP Dustin May likely to fulfill a bulk role as Boston lines up its rotation for the west coast road trip that begins this weekend. The Sox pushed back rookie Payton Tolle’s next start until Friday to manage his workload following his call-up from AAA-Worcester. It’s unclear what role LHP Kyle Harrison, acquired from San Francisco in the Rafael Devers trade, could play in the bullpen game. He’s reportedly dealing with an ankle injury. Harrison drove to Boston on Tuesday in preparation for a call-up.
• May is available for up to 40 pitches on Wednesday before he’ll return to the starting rotation on this upcoming road trip.
• Boston Red Sox recalled RHP Zack Kelly from the Worcester Red Sox and selected the contract of C Ali Sánchez for September call-ups, Sánchez acquired in a trade with the Mets. They declined to promote IF Kristian Campbell for now. OF Jhostynxon Garcia is a likely call-up if Anthony misses time.
• The Mariners, Rangers and Royals all lost on Wednesday, cementing the Sox and Yankees, winners, as relative playoff locks barring a massive collapse. Boston is now 4.5 games up on Seattle in the third wild card spot, 6.0 games above the Rangers outside the playoff picture, 7.0 games ahead of Kansas City and 8.0 over Tampa, who passed the Guardians (8.5 GB) after Cleveland’s two losses in Boston. The Sox are tied with New York, 2.5 games behind the Blue Jays for the division. Boston has a 98.1% chance to make the playoffs and 12.6% to win the division.