Kyle Schwarber comes through in clutch as Red Sox earn massive win over Mariners

When the Red Sox acquired Kyle Schwarber at the trade deadline, they weren’t so much worried about his imperfect defensive fit. They knew the impact of his bat would complement an already explosive lineup and help them in their pursuit of a playoff spot.

“If we get where we’re trying to go, it’s a weapon that we can really, really leverage in very important games at the end,” Chaim Bloom said in July.

The Red Sox aren’t quite where they want to be yet, but on Tuesday night in Seattle, Bloom’s vision was in full focus.

Schwarber has been a net positive for the Red Sox since his addition, and he produced his biggest contribution yet. While most of Boston was asleep, Schwarber put a rough stretch behind him with a massive go-ahead, three-run double in the eighth to push the Red Sox to an enormous 8-4 victory over the Mariners.

Given the circumstances, it felt like one of the biggest hits of the season for the Red Sox, who moved into a three-way tie with the Blue Jays and Yankees for the top American League wild card spot with 15 games remaining.

A night after he struck out three times to extend his slump to an 0-for-16 stretch and a costly error proved to be the difference in a loss, Schwarber started Tuesday night on the bench. But with the bases loaded in the eighth, that was all in the past after his biggest hit in a Red Sox uniform put them in front for good.

“I’m a big believer in that you have to be able to turn the page,” Schwarber said. “I can’t be reliving that moment over and over again. I have to be able to look back at it and learn from it and then move on. Today was a whole brand new day. It was definitely a spot that for me as a baseball player, I definitely want to be every time. Those are spots you want to be in, to drive in runs to put your team in front. But yeah, definitely with yesterday, it was still a nice feeling to get that hit in that spot.”

In a tied game in the eighth, with runners on second and third and one out after Xander Bogaerts tripled and Rafael Devers walked, Alex Cora trusted his gut and made a pair of bold decisions that paid off.

The first one was pinch-hitting for the red-hot Bobby Dalbec with Travis Shaw, certainly a better matchup against Mariners right-hander Drew Steckenrider but still shrewd given Dalbec had just hit a game-tying homer. It worked, though, as Shaw drew a walk to load the bases.

In spite of his recent struggles, Cora didn’t waver in putting Schwarber in to pinch hit for Kevin Plawecki. And Schwarber certainly repaid the confidence. He drew the count 3-1, swung and missed at strike two, but then sent the seventh pitch of the at-bat to the alley in right-center. All three runs scored — including Shaw, who was probably out at home but the ball squirted away — as they took a 5-2 lead.

With back-to-back at-bats, Shaw and Schwarber — two veteran late-season additions for the Red Sox who have provided greater depth to their lineup — continued to come through in a huge way.

“They know the moment, they know the situation,” Cora said of Shaw and Schwarber. “Travis has been amazing for us since he got here, not expanding the zone, attacking the pitches he wants to attack, and understanding the situation. Second and third, one out, knowing he had Kyle behind him, he’s looking for certain pitches in certain spots, he didn’t get them and kept the line moving and we were able to score right after that.

Schwarber advanced to third on the play and made an emphatic celebratory wave to the visiting dugout as he reached the base. Alex Verdugo added a two-run homer to give them insurance, but it was Schwarber who was the hero.

“The 0-for-whatever, obviously there are tough times there but you just have to be able to trust your process in the cage, trust your process on the field in batting practice and stuff like that,” Schwarber said. “When you get into a spot like that, those are spots that you want to be in as a baseball player and you want to be able to come through for your team.”

Other takeaways from Tuesday’s big win:

— Another night, another costly mistake by the Red Sox’ defense. After Schwarber’s error in Monday’s loss, it was Hunter Renfroe’s turn on Tuesday. The right fielder inexplicably dropped an easy, routine fly ball in deep right-center, which loaded the bases with no outs for Nathan Eovaldi, who deserved better. Two batters later, the Mariners scored a go-ahead run to take a 2-1 lead on Jake Fraley’s sac fly.

Eovaldi worked some magic to get out of that situation with just one run, but it obviously could have gone much worse. Renfroe, though he leads the majors with 16 outfield assists this season, has been inconsistent of late. He now leads all big-league outfielders with 11 errors this season after making one on back-to-back nights in Seattle.

Eovaldi had been cruising through three innings on 39 pitches, but hit a road bump thanks to Renfroe’s error. He ended up throwing 38 pitches in the fourth, a lot of them high-stress, and that ultimately cut his night shorter than he would have liked. He struck nine over five innings, his shortest outing in five starts.

— Bobby Dalbec’s second-half tear continued in a big way in his hometown. Playing his first big-league game in his home of Seattle, Dalbec crushed a 3-2 curveball and sent it the other way for a game-tying shot in the sixth. His 22nd home run of the year was his 12th since the trade deadline.