Eight of Red Sox slugger Tyler O’Neill’s past 14 hits have been home runs. That includes a 393-foot three-run walkoff blast in the 10th inning Wednesday.
O’Neill connected on an 88.3 mph slider from Orioles lefty Keegan Akin and sent it over the Green Monster. It was his fifth homer in his past five games. The Red Sox won 5-3 here at Fenway Park.
Red Sox' Tyler O'Neill is greeted by teammates at home plate after his game-winning three-run home run in the 10th inning Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP
“That was awesome,” O’Neill said. “Obviously late in the game, extra innings, want to come up clutch for the team. I’m just trying to get the runner in from third first and foremost. I was able to put a good swing on that, for sure.”
The 29-year-old has 30 homers in 101 games. He’s averaging a home run every 12.4 at-bats. Only Aaron Judge (10.1 homers per at-bats) and Shohei Ohtani (12.0) are ahead of him in fewest at-bats per home run.
“I’m really proud of all the work I’ve done this year,” O’Neill said. “It started in the offseason just making sure that physically I’m in a really good spot to be able to go out and produce on a day-to-day basis. I’m seeing the results of that for sure. Obviously playing here at Fenway, the ball plays to left field. So I’m not going up there trying to pull it or anything but just being able to allow it to work has worked well for me.”
Manager Alex Cora added, “Offensively, especially here, that plays. We’ve been talking about right-handed hitters changing games against us. ... He’s doing that, too, for us.”
O’Neill studied up on biomechanics to help him train differently in the offseason. He felt he needed to change some things because he was getting injured too often. This is just the second time in his career he has played in 100 or more games. He spent 12 stints on the IL from 2018-23.
He has spent time on the IL with right knee inflammation and a left leg infection this season. But each IL stint was fairly brief. He missed 15 games for the knee and 12 games for the infection, which sent him to the hospital twice.
“I just feel like I’m in a really good balanced position,” O’Neill said. “Coming off of the IL from August, I was really feeling off balanced trying to catch up with the rest of the league being out of commission for a couple weeks there. So took some punches off the chin to kind of get back into rhythm and get back into form but I feel like I’m in a good spot now and that’s all that matters.”
