Adley Rutschman knew what he wanted and knew what to expect Monday afternoon against Grayson Rodriguez, but then came the hard part: actually doing something with it.
They were batterymates in Baltimore, and Rutschman still considers Rodriguez a “good buddy.” So when they faced off at Fenway Park, in a second-inning at-bat that registered as the biggest of the Red Sox’ 5-2 win over the Angels, Rutschman had an idea.
“His heater is very firm,” said Rutschman, who has been behind the plate for more than half of all the starts in Rodriguez’s career. “And it felt like it.”
When Rodriguez, a righthander, turned to the fastball, his best pitch, in a 1-and-0 count, it stayed over the middle of the plate.
Rutschman let it rip. And he came up empty.
“Probably looked like I took a little bigger swing just because [he was geared up for Rodriguez’s fastball],” Rutschman said.
Rodriguez came right back with another four-seamer for a ball, then another that Rutschman turned into a hard line drive — foul. Those represented three of the five hardest pitches Rodriguez threw all day, at 98.1, 98.6, and 98.7 miles per hour.
When he tried a fourth in a row, it stuck on the inner third of the plate. Rutschman crushed it to right field, where it rang off the Pesky Pole for a three-run home run, the climax of a four-run frame and the Red Sox’ fifth consecutive win.
The ball screamed off Rutschman’s bat at 112.1 m.p.h., the hardest-hit batted ball of his career.
“That was going to be gone anywhere,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Just a matter of if it stayed fair or foul, and it stayed fair. That pole being close helped. Ten feet deeper, it’s probably going to hook to the right.”
Rodriguez gave up five runs in four innings for the Angels (54-90).
A quirk of the early goings of Rutschman’s Sox stint: Three of his four long balls have come against former teammates. On Thursday, in his first game against the Orioles, he went deep twice against Brandon Young.
“I know kind of what they want to do with their arsenal. I know what makes them really good, so definitely have a game plan going in,” Rutschman said of hitting against pitchers he has caught. “It’s such a different visual, though, catching vs. hitting that sometimes I’ll step into the batter’s box against guys and it just looks so much different than when you’re catching them. But you do know what makes them really good.”
The Red Sox, at 80-65, are a season-high 15 games above .500. They became the third American League team to win that many games, following the Yankees and Rays. And they inched to within two games of the Yankees for the top AL wild-card spot.
Jarren Duran launched his 20th homer of the season, Caleb Durbin collected two hits, and Garrett Whitlock recorded the save in place of Aroldis Chapman (rest).
A theme of the Sox’ latest win streak: dominant starting pitching, including a 1.16 ERA (four earned runs in 31 innings) over the past five games.
This time, it was righthander Brayan Bello. He navigated five innings without allowing a run in his first start since June 4, first win as a starter since April 12, and first scoreless start since Aug. 22, 2025.
“It was a very good outing,” Bello said through an interpreter. “At the beginning, I felt kind of weird, but I was able to find myself again and I was able to get the rhythm back on quickly.”
Tracy said: “It wasn’t perfect. … He did a great job in the bases-loaded spots, making pitches. He got into some three-ball counts that can swing anything, and he made pitches and kept getting in the zone.”
Altogether, he scattered four hits and two walks and struck out seven.
Bello’s biggest bugaboo from his early-season issues — the first inning, in which he had a 16.20 ERA — was not a problem this time. He worked around Wade Meckler’s two-out walk.
In the third, he stranded the bases loaded.
“You can see it building, the confidence,” Tracy said.
Bello said: “My mentality changed. Before, I was just trying to locate pitches. Right now, just trying to be aggressive in the zone and not thinking much about end results, just being aggressive and attacking batters.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.