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Boston Globe

For much of the season, fastballs were the Red Sox' weakness. Here's how they've flipped the script.

'We're not striking out [anymore], right? I think that's telling the story. We're putting the ball in play,' said manager Alex Cora. 'We still have some holes like everybody else, but I think we're not striking out as much as we were three weeks ago.' Advertisement Asked to clarify what happened three weeks ago, Cora implicitly referenced the June 15 decision to trade Rafael Devers to the Giants as a landmark. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Different personnel. I mean, let's be honest, that's part of this,' said Cora. 'This is a different group than three weeks ago, and I think the guys that we have now, they put the ball in play. And in those situations, they catch up with the fastball against lefties and against righties. And we've just gotten better.' With Devers, the Red Sox hit .259 against four-seamers and sinkers/two-seamers (20th in MLB) while slugging .421 (16th) with a 22 percent whiff rate (28th). From the trade through the start of Monday night's game, they were hitting .270 against fastballs (11th) while slugging .440 (11th) with a 19 percent whiff rate (12th). Advertisement Those numbers were driven mostly by a best-in-baseball hot stretch from June 28-July 6, during which the Sox hit .380, slugged .592, and missed on roughly one out of every eight swings (12.6 percent) against heaters. The absence of Devers (a sky-high 33 percent whiff rate on fastballs for the Sox) and arrival of Roman Anthony (16 percent whiff rate) and Marcelo Mayer (15 percent) has led to some shift of the team's dynamics against fastballs — a notion that gained further credence on Monday, when the Sox went 7 for 15 with two home runs and three doubles against fastballs while But there's more to the recent surge than changing personnel. Ceddanne Rafaela cut his whiff rate from 24 percent on fastballs before the Devers trade to 13 percent since. While Trevor Story has had a fairly steady swing-and-miss rate against fastballs this year, he's started to punish heat in the zone, with three homers off of 95-plus-m.p.h. pitches since the beginning of June — after not hitting any in the first three years and two months of his Red Sox career. So, what's allowing the Sox to handle heat? 'Game-planning, conversation, practice — just stressing it, and just constantly reminding the guys, our approach is built off the fastball for the most part,' said Fatse. 'I think it's a lot of an approach thing. If you're getting in-between pitches and you're looking for 95 but the guy also has a breaking ball at 82 or slider at 86, you have to stay on your fastball timing.' Advertisement Still, that doesn't simply mean Fatse and the Red Sox' hitters stand in a dark room shouting, 'Stay on the fastball!' Instead, with their 'For every fastball tilt or shape, you have to have a swing to cover that,' said Fatse. 'We have ways of describing that for every guy based on their strengths.' The more individualized discussion coincides roughly with a nine-game offensive eruption in which the Red Sox have averaged 8.4 runs. It helps, of course, that the Sox have faced a number of struggling or unestablished starters during that time, with nary a sub-4.00 ERA among the last seven starters. Still, the Sox have demonstrated an adaptability that wasn't always apparent while getting repeatedly beaten by fastballs earlier this year. 'It's definitely hard to [adapt to opponents' game plans], but these guys are amazingly talented and they're hard workers, as well, so they'll be able to make adjustments a lot faster than a lot of other people,' said third baseman Alex Bregman. 'I think the last week, 10 days, has been an example of what we feel like this team is capable of. And I think the future is extremely bright here and looking forward to continuing to play with those guys. It's been fun to watch them go about their business.' Now, the Sox are hopeful that further personnel changes — specifically the returns of Masataka Yoshida as soon as Wednesday and Bregman Advertisement Alex Speier can be reached at