Sonny Gray spins gem as Red Sox beat Brewers, win series

BOSTON — It may still be early, but this week represented a gut check of sorts for the Red Sox.

Entering the week with the worst record in baseball at 2-7, the Red Sox found themselves matched up against a 7-2 Milwaukee Brewers team that was tied for the best record in MLB. The Red Sox had already dug themselves a huge hole, and another series loss could have put the club in an even more difficult position.

Instead, the Red Sox appear to have finally found their footing.

After losing Monday’s opener, the Red Sox came back to win the next two games to capture their first series victory of the season. Sonny Gray led the way in Wednesday’s 5-0 win, throwing 6 1/3 scoreless innings while limiting the Brewers to three hits and two walks.

“I was just thinking happy flight, happy flight, happy flight. You want to win on getaway day,” Gray said following the win. “I watched (Garrett Crochet) last night and the game was over and it was like, ‘OK it’s my turn to go out there and keep it going.’ ”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the past two games have been more like what the club expected coming into the season.

“We’re supposed to pitch,” Cora said. “Crochet goes deep into the game, that was good, Sonny did the same thing, now it’s (Connelly) Early on Friday. So we continue to pitch we’re going to be OK.”

The Red Sox only managed three hits through the first six innings, but they got plenty of help from the Brewers pitching staff, and from one familiar face in particular.

Wednesday marked the MLB debut for Brewers starter Shane Drohan, a former Red Sox prospect who was dealt to Milwaukee in February as part of the Caleb Durbin trade. Drohan has overcome significant injury adversity to reach the majors, but his dream moment took a sour turn when his command abandoned him in the bottom of the third.

After retiring six of the first seven batters he faced, Drohan allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the third. He then drew a groundout before walking Andruw Monasterio to load the bases, and he then walked Willson Contreras to drive in the game’s first run.

From there Wilyer Abreu tagged Drohan for an RBI single, and Trevor Story hit a deep fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly. Finally, Drohan walked Durbin for his third free pass of the inning to reload the bases, and by that point Brewers manager Pat Murphy had seen enough and pulled the rookie left-hander after 2 2/3 innings.

Brewers right-hander Grant Anderson was able to escape the jam without further incident, keeping Drohan’s line respectable with three runs allowed on three hits with four walks and two strikeouts. Milwaukee’s bullpen continued to dominate from there, but Gray made sure the 3-0 lead held up.

Other than a leadoff double by Sal Frelick to lead off the game, the Brewers got virtually nothing against the veteran Red Sox righty. The only serious threat Gray faced his entire outing came in the third when he worked around a walk and a single and escaped a second-and-third jam by striking out Jake Bauers.

Bauers was the first of 10 straight batters Gray retired from the third through the sixth inning, and when he was finally lifted for Greg Weissert with one on and one out in the seventh he walked off to a rousing standing ovation, tipping his cap to the fans as he reached the dugout steps.

“He was dealing today,” catcher Carlos Narvaez said of Gray’s performance. “We know we had a really good lineup over there, they’re going to put the ball in play, they’re trying to run, trying to bunt, trying to do small baseball, but a lot of weak contact. It was amazing.”

Weissert wound up navigating a tense inning when he allowed a single that put two men on with two outs, but he got an assist from Narvaez successfully challenged a 3-2 ball to Joey Ortiz, turning what would have been a walk to load the bases into an inning-ending strikeout.

“That was a great, great challenge by Narvy,” Gray said. “A very quality high-leverage challenge that we’re looking for.”

Then the Red Sox offense came back to life, ripping off three consecutive hits and scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a Story RBI single and a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Durbin, which was initially ruled an inning-ending double play before being overturned after replay review.

Rookie left-hander Tyler Samaniego, who was called up from Triple-A Worcester hours before first pitch, struck out three in a scoreless eighth for his MLB debut, and Ryan Watson finished the job with a scoreless ninth to finish off the victory.

“Really good. Threw strikes, good stuff,” Cora said of Samaniego, who was acquired this past offseason as part of the Johan Oviedo-Jhostynxon Garcia deal. “In that trade he was a guy that was very intriguing, and we got him and he’s going to contribute.”

With the win the Red Sox improved to 4-8 and finished their six-game homestand 3-3. The club still has a tall hill to climb after its dreadful first two weeks, but the Red Sox enter Thursday’s off day riding their first winning streak of the season.

“We understand the moment that we’re in. I know it doesn’t feel (good) right now for the fan base, for us, we want it as much as they want it,” Narvaez said. “So these last few games were huge, they have really good pitching and we were able to score runs and keep the scoring our way. That’s huge momentum for us for the road, we have an off day tomorrow to reset and we’ve got a game on Friday.”

Boston will now hit the road for a six-game trip, starting with three games against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend. Early (0-0, 2.89) is scheduled to start Friday’s series opener against former Red Sox righty Dustin May (0-2, 15.95).

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