Diamondbacks - 000 100 010 - 2 7 1 Red Sox - 270 160 00x - 16 19 2Mookie Betts hit three home runs and drove in a career-best eight runs. It was Betts's second three-HR game of the season; he also went deep three times on May 31 in Baltimore. The only other hitter in Red Sox history to have multiple three-HR games in one season is Ted Williams (1957: May 8 at Chicago and June 13 at Cleveland).
The Red Sox set a season-high in runs in winning the afternoon contest and sweeping the three-game series against Arizona (last in the NL West). Boston sent ten men to the plate in the second inning and quickly put the game out of reach against Zack Greinke, who recorded only five outs while giving up 10 hits and nine runs.
Betts crushed a two-run shot to left in the first (that sailed out of Fenway Park), a three-run blast into the Monster Seats in the second, and a three-run dong to left in the fifth. He also singled and scored in the fourth to end the day 4-for-5, with a career-best four runs scored. (In his other at-bats, he flied to right in the sixth and grounded to third in the eighth.)
In his first four plate appearances, Betts saw 10 pitches and swung at four of them:
1st: Ball, Ball, Home RunBetts and David Ortiz are now tied for the team lead in home runs, with 26. Betts has 84 RBI this year, second to Ortiz (90).
2nd: Ball, Ball, Home Run
4th: Ball, Single
5th: Ball, Home Run
Dustin Pedroia went 5-for-6 and scored three times. It was the fifth five-hit game of Pedroia's career - which is the most of any Red Sox hitter in history - and second of 2016.
Hanley Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a double. ... Jackie Bradley homered and drove in three runs. ... Andrew Benintendi singled, doubled, and walked. ... Rick Porcello was sharp and economical: 7-3-1-0-4, 80.
Pedroia, 2B
Holt, SS
Betts, RF
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, 1B
Bradley, CF
Hill, 3B
Leon, C
Benintendi, LF
7 comments:
A Cleveland prospect has a 50-game hitting streak.
ELIAS:
Ninth-place batter Andrew Benintendi went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI in the Red Sox' 6-3 home win over the Diamondbacks. Benintendi has started eight major-league games, all batting eighth or ninth, and has rapped more than one hit in four of them. The last Boston player to produce four multiple-hit games from the eighth or ninth slot within his first eight MLB starts was Gerry Moses, from September 1968 to April 1969.
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Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge, each batting for the first time in their first major-league game, hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning of the Yankees' 8-4 home win over the Rays. Not only are Austin and Judge the first pair of teammates to hit home runs in their first major-league at-bat in the same game, only four other teams have ever had two different players homer in their first at-bat in the same season: the 1937 Athletics (Ace Parker & Gene Hasson), 1997 Expos (Dustin Hermanson & Brad Fullmer), 2000 Cardinals (Keith McDonald & Chris Richard), and 2009 Diamondbacks (Gerardo Parra & John Hester).
There has been only one other date on which two players hit home runs in their first major-league at-bat. That was April 19, 1938, when the Dodgers' Ernie Koy and the Phillies' Emmett Mueller did so in the first inning of the same game, an Opening Day win for Brooklyn at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl.
Since the end of World War II, the only other Yankees teammates to make their major-league debut as starters in the same game are Yogi Berra and Bobby Brown (Sept. 22, 1946) and Johnny Ellis and Jim Lyttle (May 17, 1969).
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Mookie Facts:
Betts is the youngest MLB player with 3 HR & 8+ RBI in a game since Fred Lynn in 1975.
Betts joins Michael Saunders as the only major-leaguers with 8 RBIs in a game this year.
Last Red Sox with 8+ RBI in a game: Bill Mueller, 2003.
This SoSHer's post says it all about CHB Shaughnessy (no link will be given, of course):
"Only Shank could pen an article after a 16-2 win that capped off a sweep titled 'Why I'm Starting To Hate This Year's Red Sox'."
Fuck Shank and his Spink Award, go back to your land of misery
Lauber, ESPN:
Among the AL leaders, Betts ranks second in hits (154), tied for second in doubles (34), third in runs (91), fourth in slugging (.561) and WAR (6.1), tied for fourth in triples (5), tied for fifth in RBIs (84) and steals (18), eighth in OPS (.914) and tied for ninth in home runs (26). He also leads the league in at-bats (492) and has played all but 48 innings this season. ... Betts might be on the doorstep of 30 homers. ... Betts could join Williams, Tony Conigliaro and Nomar Garciaparra as the only players in franchise history to hit 30 homers before their age-24 season.
David Laurila, SoSH, on CHB's column:
"The article cites the Red Sox poor record when trailing after 7- and 8-innings, not bothering to mention that they are better than league average in both cases. There is also a claim that "October baseball games are 3-2 and 2-1," which is questionable given that last year's postseason had four one-run games and 22 that were decided by three-or-more runs. The writer also states that "Most of the rest of Boston's (remaining) games are against teams that still think they have a chance to win." Maybe they do, but starting a week from today the Red Sox play 16 straight games against teams that are under .500, and 20 of their last 46 are against teams under .500. Basically, this article is filled with misleading "facts.""
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