Red Sox reactions: Sonny Gray (6 IP), Wilyer Abreu (3 hits) lead way in Boston’s 7th straight win

NEW YORK — Instant reactions to the Red Sox (44-48) ending a very long travel day with a 6-2 victory over the Mets to extend their longest winning streak of the season to seven games Friday:

1) With the odds stacked against them after a hectic 24-hour travel day that led to players arriving at Citi Field barely more than two hours before the scheduled first pitch time of 7:15 p.m., the Red Sox seemed to have everything stacked against them Friday. But they beat the Mets in wire-to-wire fashion to extend their season-long winning streak to seven games. It’s the longest Sox win streak since July 29-August 5 of last season.

Boston has now won 12 of its last 14 games to get back to four games under .500 for the first time since April 20, when they were 9-13.

2) Sonny Gray didn’t look as dominant as he has at many points during his stellar season, but he still gave the Red Sox more than enough in his final start before the All-Star break. Gray worked around five hits and a walk to hold the Mets to a single run in six innings. He struck out three but got enough soft contact and New York was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position against him.

The final tally on Gray’s first half? An 11-1 record and a 2.54 ERA in 95 ⅔ innings. That he’s not an All-Star is a travesty, to say the least.

3) Anthony Seigler continues to bring energy — and a hot bat — to the leadoff spot. Hitting from the right side against reliever A.J. Minter in the seventh, Seigler dinged the left-field foul pole for a two-run shot that stretched a 2-1 lead into a much more comfortable 4-1 advantage.

An animated Seigler, who has hit .297 with an .868 OPS in 20 big league games so far, celebrated quite excitedly during his entire trip around the bases. The Red Sox have found an unlikely spark plug in the second baseman.

4) Wilyer Abreu had a big night at the plate, falling a triple short of the cycle. He walked, singled and doubled — on a near-homer that left the bat at 111 mph — against Nolan McLean before continuing his dominance against left-handed pitching by launching a two-run homer off veteran reliever Cionel Perez in the top of the ninth. That blast increased Boston’s lead from 4-1 to 6-1.

It was Abreu’s sixth three-hit game of a strong first half and his first since June 12. He had last homered in Colorado on June 24 before the late blast.

5) On the day he was named an All-Star for the first time, Ceddanne Rafaela... bunted in his first at-bat with a man in scoring position. After Seigler reached second to lead off the game on a missed catch error by Juan Soto in left field, Rafaela laid down a first-pitch bunt to get Seigler to third.

From there, the Red Sox were able to cash in with two outs against McLean. Masataka Yoshida placed a two-run double down the left field line that opened the scoring against McLean, who was otherwise strong in a six-inning outing.

6) Things got hairy — at least momentarily — for setup man Garrett Whitlock in the eighth. On the first pitch Whitlock threw, A.J. Ewing lined a comebacker off Whitlock’s foot at 98 mph, then reached first as the ball got away. Three pitches later, Soto hit a rocket off Romy Gonzalez’s glove and down the first base line to put runners on the corners with two outs.

From there, Whitlock got three straight outs as the strong arms of Rafaela and Abreu prevented a run from scoring when Ewing didn’t try to turn back-to-back fly balls into a run-scoring sacrifice fly. Abreu’s homer allowed the Red Sox to avoid using closer Aroldis Chapman again. Greg Weissert pitched the ninth instead and allowed a solo homer to Brett Baty.

7) Connor Wong found himself in the middle of two close plays on the basepaths in the fourth, and one went each team’s way. After getting hit by a pitch with one out, Wong tried to steal second and did, successfully, before he was ruled to have come off the base. After a Red Sox challenge, the call was overturned.

Shortly thereafter, Wong was thrown out at home plate trying to score from second on a Tsung-Che Cheng single. Right fielder Carson Benge made a nice throw toward home and Francisco Alvarez tagged Wong out, though he was originally called safe. That call was also overturned after a review.

8) The Red Sox still haven’t tabbed their starting pitcher for Saturday as they look for a one-day replacement for the injured Ranger Suarez. The Mets will send big offseason acquisition Freddy Peralta (5-7, 4.68 ERA) to the mound in his final start of a disappointing first half.

First pitch is at 4:10 p.m. ET.

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