Surging Red Sox rally past Mets for sixth straight win

Sep. 22—BOSTON — Don't look now, but the Red Sox are starting to look like they did in the first half again.

Coming off Sunday's come from behind win over Baltimore, the Red Sox delivered an encore performance in Tuesday's date with the New York Mets, utilizing a combination of timely hitting and excellent relief pitching to rally back for a 6-3 win.

In doing so the Red Sox have now won six straight, their longest winning streak since the team won eight straight between June 25 and July 2, and maintained their 1.5-game lead over Toronto for first in the American League Wild Card standings.

A hallmark of Boston's mid-season struggles has been the team's inability to capitalize on high-leverage situations, and Xander Bogaerts epitomized both the good and bad versions of the Red Sox offense on Tuesday. In the third inning he came to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs and promptly grounded into a 5-2-3 double play. Rafael Devers would pop out the next at bat and the Red Sox would get nothing.

His next two at bats? A totally different story.

Bogaerts crushed the go-ahead two-run home run in the fifth to cap off a three run rally that started when Kiké Hernández also hit a bomb to lead off the inning. Then Bogaerts came up with the bases loaded again in the sixth and ripped a two-run single to make it 6-2. Christian Vazquez also had an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth.

Meanwhile, the bullpen took over for Eduardo Rodriguez (4.1 innings, 2 runs) and shut the door, holding the Mets to just three hits and one run over the last 4.2 innings. New York's only run off the bullpen came on a solo home run by Pete Alonso in the top of the eighth, and prior to that Rodriguez walked in a run with the bases loaded and allowed an RBI single to Michael Conforto in the fourth.

The Red Sox and Mets will wrap up their two-game set on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. Red Sox ace Chris Sale (4-0, 2.40 ERA) is slated to face off against Mets righty Taijuan Walker (7-10, 4.27 ERA).

Whitlock to IL, Arroyo back

Prior to Tuesday's game, the Red Sox announced that rookie reliever Garrett Whitlock is being placed on the 10-day injured list with a right pectoral strain. The team called up Ryan Brasier to fill his spot on the active roster and Red Sox manager Alex Cora indicated Whitlock's injury isn't serious and he should be able to return soon.

The Red Sox also activated infielder Christian Arroyo from the COVID-19 list. The second baseman was placed on the COVID-19 list on Aug. 27 as a close contact, subsequently tested positive and missed 22 games. Jack Lopez was returned to Triple-A Worcester to make room on the roster.

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.