When the Red Sox acquired Adam Duvall, they talked about his pull-side power and how it would play at Fenway Park. How it could transform an offense that had its share of power outages last year.
With the Sox trailing by a run in the ninth inning Saturday against the commanding presence and stuff of Orioles closer Felix Bautista, they received another glimpse of that initial admiration for Duvall when he laced a two-run walkoff homer that sent Fenway Park into bedlam.
“That was crazy,” manager Alex Cora said after the Sox won, 9-8. “But like I’ve been saying, offensively, we do believe this is going to happen. We’re going to move the line, we’re going to keep grinding.”
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The Duvall at-bat came about after Orioles left fielder Ryan McKenna dropped a Masataka Yoshida fly ball that would have been the last out of the game. Instead, the stage was set for Duvall, who stamped his first career moment in a Red Sox uniform.
“I mean, that’s a strong part of my game,” Duvall said regarding his power to left field. “So to be able to execute that is big. It’s big for me as a hitter. It’s just about having an approach and sticking with it, believing in it and trusting it.”
It wasn’t the first time Duvall went deep to that side of the field. In fact, he played a huge role in the Sox rallying from an early six-run deficit. His two-run homer cut the Red Sox’ deficit to 7-5 in the third inning. The walkoff shot cemented a 4 for 5 (5 RBI) day that also included an RBI double and a triple.
“I called his first homer down in the bullpen,” said reliever Chris Martin, a teammate of Duvall’s while with the Braves in 2021 who registered a scoreless eighth inning for the Sox. “When that guy dropped that fly ball I saw [Duvall] come to the plate and I was like, ‘This guy’s locked in right now.’ I’ve seen him when he gets hot, he gets hot.”
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The 1-0 fastball from Bautista traveled at 100 miles per hour. Duvall turned on the pitch with it leaving his bat at 106.7 m.p.h. on a line. The ball parked itself on top of the Green Monster ledge before bouncing back onto the field.
“As soon as he hit it I was like, ‘Man, it’s either going to be in the first row or like off the wall,’ ” said Rob Refsnyder who pinch ran for Yoshida. “I was just trying to score.”
But the lefthander yielded 7 earned runs in just three innings on 7 hits, including 3 home runs, and issued 2 walks against 6 strikeouts.
“I left them completely out to dry tonight,” Sale said. “I was as embarrassed as I’ve ever been on a baseball field. Bullpen couldn’t have come in and done a better job. Our offense, what they did tonight was incredible. They’re the reason we won this game. Obviously, Opening Day didn’t go our way either, but they did everything they could then, too.”
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The Orioles scalded two homers off Sale in the first inning, starting with Ryan Mountcastle’s two-run shot that traveled 422 feet to left-center field. Austin Hays one-upped his teammate, sending a Sale offering 430 feet to center to make it a 3-0 game.
Sale completely fell apart in his final inning. He allowed 4 runs in the third, with Cedric Mullins’s three-run shot to the 420-sign in center accounting for most of the damage.
“The one to Mullins got my attention,” Cora said. “It was up in the zone, 93-94 m.p.h. and he got to it. It was just one of those days. We have to get better.”
Yet the Sox offense, as Sale alluded to, saved him. Alex Verdugo punched in with a two-run homer to right-center and Duvall hit his first two-run shot in third inning. A Kiké Hernández solo home run in the seventh made it an 8-6 game and was soon followed by Duvall’s ground-rule double that made it a one-run game.
The Sox’ late-innings offensive work came against an Orioles bullpen that was No. 1 in the majors in save conversion last season.
A lot of that had to do with Duvall, who fell a single shy of the cycle. But he wasn’t too concerned with that.
“I’ll take the W,” he said.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.