Amidst a brutal stretch of seven losses in eight games punctuated by a weekend sweep by the Blue Jays at Fenway Park, Red Sox clubhouse manager Tommy McLaughlin recognized the need for transformation and the urgency of the moment.
“Tommy made the right call right away [after Sunday’s loss],” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “In case of emergency, wear yellow.”
Aglow in their City Connect uniforms Monday night, the Sox put out that yellow bat signal, but it was perhaps the most unexpected of their bats who responded.
With the Sox and Royals tied with two outs in the ninth inning, light-hitting Pablo Reyes — possessor of six career homers, none in 2023 — capped the greatest game of his career by drilling a 98 m.p.h. fastball off the Fisk Pole for a walkoff grand slam that gave the Sox a 6-2 victory and snapped a four-game losing streak. The Sox improved to 22-4 in yellow, including 7-0 this year.
“We needed that so much,” Rafael Devers said. “Everybody is smiling again.”
Those grins represented a departure from a game that was turning grim for the Sox in the late innings.
For much of the contest, the Sox seemed ready to ride the excellence of starter Brayan Bello to victory. Though sluggish in the first inning (Devers cited Bello’s oversized pregame meal of rice and beans as the culprit), Bello found a groove with his sinker beginning in the second and mowed through the Royals’ lineup.
However, Kansas City starter Cole Ragans, a lefthander acquired from Texas in late June in exchange for Aroldis Chapman, matched Bello with a dazzling four-pitch mix (high-90s fastball, Wiffle ball changeup, cutter, curveball) that yielded a career-high 11 strikeouts. Almost no one on the Sox could solve Ragans — save for Reyes.
The shortstop almost single-handedly fueled the Sox offense. He led off the third inning with a single, stole second, advanced to third on the catcher’s throwing error, then jogged home on a Masataka Yoshida sacrifice fly to give the Sox a 1-0 lead.
Two innings later — after Bello squashed rallies in both the fourth and fifth frames with inning-ending 6-4-3 double plays initiated by Reyes, the latter keeping the Royals scoreless in a frame that they began with men on first and third with no outs — Reyes again sparked the Sox in the fifth. He zipped a double to right-center field off Ragans and scored when Connor Wong doubled for a 2-0 lead.
Bello carried a shutout into the seventh, but with two outs, he gave up a hit to right by No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel, who recognized right fielder Adam Duvall fielding the ball flat-footed and raced to second. With the top of the order due up, Cora summoned righthander Josh Winckowski, who got Maikel Garcia to chase a two-strike slider down and off the plate. But Garcia’s wedge shot plunked into right for a single to score Isbel. With Kansas City down, 2-1, emerging superstar Bobby Witt Jr. then crushed a 98 m.p.h. sinker on the inside corner into the Triangle for a game-tying double.
Bello’s night thus ended with a no-decision following an excellent 6 innings in which he allowed just one run on six hits and two walks while striking out two and recording a dozen outs via ground ball.
“It was a good outing for me,” Bello (3.64 ERA) said of his team-leading seventh outing of more than six innings.
Ragans also exited after 6 innings, and after making a tremendous impression on his opponents.
“One of the best we’ve seen,” Cora said.
That left the game to the bullpens. Chris Martin delivered a perfect eighth with one strikeout for the Sox, and Kenley Jansen (3-5) followed with a perfect ninth featuring two punchouts.
With the contest knotted, 2-2, the Royals turned to hard-throwing righthander Carlos Hernández for the ninth. Devers drilled a slider below the zone for a one-out, ground-rule double to right. A strikeout and intentional walk to Triston Casas put runners on first and second with two outs for Luis Urías.
On a full-count pitch, Urías, who had struck out three times, appeared unable to check his swing on a 100 m.p.h. fastball. But to the disgust of the Royals, first-base umpire Vic Carapazza pronounced it a non-swing, resulting in a walk to load the bases.
“It’s a tough job,” Cora said of Carapazza’s ruling. “I’ll leave it at that.”
That brought the power-deficient Reyes to the plate. On the first pitch, Reyes saw Royals third baseman Garcia positioned near Kenmore Square, and squared for a possible bunt before taking a ball. But the bunt did not betray his true intentions in the face of recent teasing.
“Devers and all my teammates were like, ‘Pablo when are you going to hit a homer?’ " Reyes said. “I said, ‘I’m going to try this week when I have an opportunity.’ I started the game with two base hits and I said, ‘Well, I’ve got to try to come up with a big swing.’ "
On the fastball from Hernandez (1-7), he delivered. With one swing, Reyes plated more runs than the Sox had scored in seven of their prior nine games.
The unlikely turn of events delivered a thunderclap to the 32,732 fans in attendance at Fenway and, the Red Sox hope, awakened a team that had been dormant in August.
“It was a big one,” Cora said. “Let’s see where it takes us. Sometimes games like that get you going, and we needed to get going. … We’re coming from a tough week and this is a great way to start the week.”
With the dramatic victory and Trevor Story’s forthcoming return Tuesday, the Sox hope to build upon the momentum. The team is clear-eyed about one element in its effort to do just that: Its luminous uniforms.
The color of choice for Tuesday?
“We ain’t changing,” said Cora.
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.