Alex Cora In Awe Over Triston Casas’ Home Run

Red Sox manager Alex Cora spent many times as a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers watching Barry Bonds crush home runs in San Francisco.

But the blast Cora witnessed from Triston Casas in the pitcher-friendly ballpark on Friday night in Boston’s narrow 3-2 win left the skipper in awe.

The left-handed hitter continued his torrid stretch at the plate and mesmerized Cora in the process by crushing a 435-foot solo homer to left-center field off Giants starter Logan Webb in the top of the fifth at Oracle Park.

“I played here a lot of games and I saw one of the great ones dominating from like 2000 to 2004,” Cora told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “That ball he hit to left-center, that’s one of the best home runs I’ve seen here and I saw many.”

The round-tripper was the seventh for Casas alone this month and lately, he’s been handling some of the best pitchers in all of baseball.

The 24-year-old rookie first baseman launched two home runs off three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer last week and took Spencer Strider, who is a favorite to win this year’s National League Cy Young Award, deep on Wednesday.

“That ball he hit to left-center, that’s one of the best home runs I’ve seen here and I saw many.”

Alex Cora

Webb, who is the ace of the Giants pitching staff, became Casas’ latest victim as he also notched a ground-rule double to deep right-center to plate Adam Duvall in the top of the first.

“In a good groove at the plate right now,” Casas told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “We’ve been running through a stretch of aces feels like for a week straight, from the Mets series to the Braves to here. Feels good to contribute against arms like that.”

The month of July — really since after the All-Star break — has been a stark contrast to the way Casas started the season. Since the break, Casas leads the majors in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage while being tied in home runs.

Casas hit just .133 over the first month of the season, but being patient with the youngster and sticking with him certainly is paying off at a crucial point in the season.

“We knew that the process was the right one,” Cora said. “We knew that he was swinging at strikes, that he wasn’t chasing pitches. There were a few things that we felt that he needed to add to his routine. And little by little, he’s made adjustments with (hitting coach) Pete (Fatse), (assistant hitting coach Ben Rosenthal) and (assistant hitting coach) Louis (Ortiz) and you can see the results.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Giants game:

— Kutter Crawford continues to step up with Boston shorthanded in the starting rotation. He delivered 5 2/3 strong innings, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out seven and walking one.

“He’s been huge for us the whole season,” Cora said. “Out of the bullpen early on. … When he got to the rotation, he’s been solid. He’s a guy that we really like. His stuff is really, really good. He understands the craft of pitching. He uses all his pitches and most of the time he goes five and that’s good enough for us.”

— Justin Turner made one of the top web gems of the season for the Red Sox and it came with the veteran playing second base — it was just his fourth start of the season at the position. Turner helped Josh Winckowski get out of the jam in the top of the seventh by ranging deep to his right to snag a grounder and flipped it with his glove to second while losing balance for the force out.

“It was just kind of in the moment,” Turner told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “I was joking early, I’m glad it wasn’t too low. I didn’t have to bend over too far. Some people think I can’t get down there anymore. Ended up being a pretty big play and then Winck did a good job of pitching his way out of the rest of the inning.”

— Rob Refsnyder saw only one pitch from the batter’s box, but it was all he needed to provide a pivotal run. Cora called upon Refsnyder to pinch hit against Giants lefty reliever Taylor Rogers in the top of the eighth and lined the first offering to left field to plate Connor Wing, which ended up being the decisive run.

Refsnyder is now hitting .358 against lefties this season.

— Alex Verdugo put an end to an elongated hitless streak in the win. He snapped an 0-for-21 stretch with a single to right field in the top of the fifth. Verdugo is hitting just .081 since the All-Star break.

— The Red Sox continue their series with the Giants on Saturday. First pitch from Oracle Park is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET and will be televised on FOX. The Red Sox return to NESN airwaves Sunday with the series finale in San Francisco set for 4:05 p.m.