Rays - 010 020 000 - 3 3 0 Red Sox - 002 040 00x - 6 7 0After losing the lead in the top of the fifth, the Red Sox quickly grabbed it back in the bottom half. Chris Sale (7-2-3-2-12, 111), Joe Kelly, and Craig Kimbrel limited the Rays to three hits.
The two clubs traded home runs in the early innings. Logan Morrison's solo shot got Tampa Bay on the board in the second. Mookie Betts gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead, as Sandy Leon had walked before he went over the Wall. In the fifth, Sale walked Derek Norris with two outs and Kevin Kiermaier followed with a dong, giving the Rays a 3-2 edge.
Leon worked a nine-pitch walk against Blake Snell (5.2-6-6-3-5, 113) to start the Red Sox's fifth. Jackie Bradley doubled to left and Leon went to third. Deven Marrero doubled to center, scoring both baserunners, and then he scored when Betts doubled to left. Dustin Pedroia bunted Betts to third and he scored on Xander Bogaerts's groundout.
Armed with a three-run lead, the Red Sox pitchers shut down any attempt by the Rays to get back into the game. After Sale walked Daniel Robertson with one out in the sixth, he struck out Evan Longoria and Rickie Weeks. Corey Dickerson reached on an infield single with one out in the eighth, and Kelly responded by whiffing Steven Souza and Brad Miller. Kimbrel set down the Rays in order in the ninth, striking out the final two hitters.
Sale struck out at least one batter in every inning (223 112 1), including seven in the first three innings. It was his seventh straight start with 10+ strikeouts.
Betts, RFThe Red Sox (18-17, 4.5 GB) have been unable to generate any momentum this season, as the results from their 35 games show:
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Benintendi, LF
Young, DH
Moreland, 1B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF
Marrero, 3B
That is the very definition of "treading water".W W L L W L W L W L W W W W L W L L W L L W L W L W W L L W W L L W L
However, I will admit that it's nice that their longest losing streak is only two games. The Red Sox and Orioles are the only two teams that have not had a losing streak of three or more games this year.
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Some Elias stuff about yesterday's games:
Miguel Sano hit a first-inning home run and the twins beat Cleveland 1-0. ... How often do you see a 1-0 game in which the only run comes on a first-inning homer? Well, there were no such games in the major leagues all of last season and only one in 2015 (Albert Pujols supplied the home run against the A's on June 13). It was the first 1-0 victory featuring a first-inning home run in the history of the franchise, dating back to its beginnings in Washington in 1901.
Buster Posey's home run in the 17th inning gave the Giants a 3-2 win over the Reds. It was the latest inning for a walk-off homer in Giants history. Previously, the latest walk-off homer for the Giants was hit by Mays in the 16th inning on July 2, 1963, providing his team with a 1-0 victory in a double-complete-game effort by future Hall-of-Famers Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn.
Joey Gallo clobbered a three-run homer in the last of the ninth, breaking a 2-2 tie and giving the Rangers a 5-2 victory over the Athletics. It was the second straight game that the Rangers have won, 5-2, with a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth; Mike Napoli ended Thursday night's game against the Padres in that manner. It's the second time this season that a team has won consecutive games on walkoff homers; Ryon Healy and Jed Lowrie of the Athletics did that on May 7-8 against the Tigers and the Angels, respectively. The last time that the Rangers won consecutive games with walkoff homers, they actually turned the trick three games in a row, with Geovany Soto, Leonys Martin and Adrian Beltre providing game-ending blows against the Angels on the last three days of July 2013.
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