Red Sox, for a change, enjoy big breakout night at Fenway

BOSTON — Their struggles at home have been well-documented: the fewest number of homers at home in either league and fewest home runs at home, too.

But for one night, none of that mattered. Barely resembling the feeble offense they’ve shown so often this season, the Red Sox erupted for a season-high in runs at Fenway, drubbing the Texas Rangers, 10-1.

“It was awesome,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “From the first inning (when the Sox score twice), it was just a very consistent attack, one through nine. So it was really nice to see.”

The Sox fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first, but then ripped off 10 unanswered runs the rest of the way, with six of the nine starters in the lineup collecting at least one hit.

Tellingly, the Sox went the other way frequently, with Ceddanne Rafaela (double) and Isiah Kiner-Falefa both slicing balls to right field while lefties Mickey Gasper and Wilyer Abreu artfully using the left field wall for extra-base hits.

“I just think we took very quality consistent at-bats throughout the game,” said Tracy. “We just kept sticking hits and stacking good at-bats.”

Only two days ago, the first three hitters in the order combined for nine strikeouts over their first three plate appearances, setting a record that dated back to 1904.

On Friday, with a slightly rejiggered lineup — Gasper replaced Jarren Duran in the leadoff spot — the trio was a collective 7-for-13 with two homers, five doubles and seven runs scored.

That helped the Red Sox take a 2-1 lead in the first and the margin grew to 6-1 with a four-run fifth inning against Texas starter Jack Leiter — which bucked a season-long trend.

“Something we’ve kind of struggled with,” noted Tracy, “is getting runs off the starter and getting into the middle part of the bullpen, We seem to do a pretty good job in the later part of the game, when we’re trailing already and we stack some runs late and come up a run short.

“But to actually stack runs early against the starting pitcher….and then to kind of open up a little bit (is nice). Once that (fifth) inning kind of opened up, you could feel the dugout relax and kept coming. It’s important that we do that. It’s not going to happen every time, but you have to be able to get to some starters.”

Sprinkled in — both early and late — were three homers. Willson Contreras added his team-leading 13th in the first, and Wilyer Abreu added his eighth in the seventh before Rafaela chipped in with his seventh in the eighth inning.

“It was great,” said starter Sonny Gray of the outburst. “The (hitters) picked me up in the first and then to add like that in the fifth…that was awesome. As a pitcher (when the lineup is going like that), your job is to go out there and get a shutdown inning and let your guys come back in and continue to hit with the lead. That was a fun game.”

Abreu, who had three hits and three RBI, said the team’s offensive approach wasn’t any different.

“We just did the same thing,” he said. “We just executed the at-bats and found the runs. That was pretty cool. We’re going to try to do that more often.”

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