G131: Red Sox 9, Rays 4

Rays    - 002 010 000 - 4  9  0
Red Sox - 020 320 20x - 9 14  0

Rick Porcello (7-6-3-0-7, 10) turned in yet another fine effort, retiring 14 of his last 15 batters, and the Red Sox hitters constructed a balanced attack against the last-place Rays. Four different players drove in two runs: Mookie Betts, Chris Young, Brock Holt, and Sandy Leon.

Betts got things started with his 30th home run, a solo shot to deep left to start the second. Much later in the inning, Brock Holt singled with the bases loaded, and for some bizarre reason third base coach Brian Butterfield waved a slow-moving Sandy Leon in from second base on the single to left. Leon was a dead duck, thus ending the inning and depriving Xander Bogaerts of batting with the bases full.

In the third, Hanley Ramirez singled and Travis Shaw hit a ground-rule double to right-center. Both runners scored on Chris Young's double into the left field corner, snapping a 2-2 tie. Back-to-back doubles from David Ortiz and Betts in the fifth brought in another run and Betts scored on Shaw's single. Leon's two-run single in the seventh scored Ramirez and Shaw.

Clay Buchholz needed 29 pitches to get through six batters in the top of the eighth. He started be allowing two singles and a walk, but then got three outs, allowing only one run. Fernando Abad had an easy ninth, giving up a two-out single, but getting a game-ending double play.

The Red Sox stayed 2 GB as the Blue Jays beat the Orioles 5-1, dropping Baltimore four games back. The fourth-place Yankees lost and are 7.5 GB.

Matt Andriese / Rick Porcello

Holt, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Ortiz, DH
Betts, RF
Ramirez, 1B
Shaw, 3B
Young, LF
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

Also, in AL East news, the Blue Jays and Orioles begin a three-game series tonight at Camden Yards.

TOR ---
BOS 2.0
BAL 3.0