Red Sox Blow Out Rays To Complete Series Sweep At Fenway Park
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox have gotten back to .500. And they did it with a flourish.
Boston took a 3-1 lead over the Rays in the fourth inning on a two-run home run for Christian Vazquez, before exploding for six runs in the fifth en route to a 9-2 win.
That was more than enough offense on a day when starter Nathan Eovaldi allowed just one run on three hits in his seven innings of work. He struck out seven batters and walked three while picking up his first win of the year, and his ERA sits at 1.46 through two starts this season.
The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Yoshi Tsutsugo singled home Francisco Mejia. That lead, though, was short-lived.
Xander Bogaerts delivered an RBI single on the fourth inning, and Vazquez crushed his second homer in as many days over the Green Monster. That missile gave the Red Sox a lead that they'd keep for the rest of the afternoon.
Liftoff! We have liftoff! pic.twitter.com/tGaUsKF9OP
— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 7, 2021
After getting staked to a lead, Eovaldi delivered a 1-2-3 top of the fifth inning, setting the stage for their biggest offensive inning of the young season.
It all happened with two outs, too. With two runners aboard, J.D. Martinez continued his torrid start to the season by hitting a two-run double. Bogaerts was credited with an infield hit in the next at-bat, followed by an RBI single from Vazquez. A throwing error by Willy Adames allowed Bogaerts and Vazquez to score, and Christian Arroyo then doubled in Hunter Renfroe, making it a 9-1 Boston lead.
The Rays added one more run in the ninth, as Josh Taylor closed out the game for the final two innings.
With his RBI double, Martinez tied the franchise record for most extra-base hits in the first six games of the season with eight, and he also joined David Ortiz (2005) and Faye Throneberry (1955) as the only Red Sox to ever record at least one extra-base hit in each of the first six games of a season.
Coming off getting swept at home by the Orioles in the first series of the year, the Red Sox came back with a sweep of their own, outscoring the Rays 26-9 in the three-game set.
Of the 20 seasons in which the Red Sox started 0-3, this is only the second time they rebounded to win their next 3 games (also 1951). No AL team had done that since the 2012 Yankees.
— J.P. Long (@SoxNotes) April 7, 2021
The game was not available on cable, as it aired exclusively on YouTube as part of a Major League Baseball initative.
The Red Sox now head to Baltimore for three more against the Orioles (3-2), before heading to Minnesota for a four-game set against the Twins (4-2).