G79: Red Sox 6, Twins 3

Twins   - 100 200 000 - 3  7  1
Red Sox - 000 131 10x - 6 10  1

Was another rag-arm going to shut down the Red Sox*? Last night, Adalberto Mejia (4.93 ERA, 1.577 WHIP) pitched 5.2 scoreless innings. In this one, Kyle Gibson (6.23 ERA, 1.831 WHIP) was beginning the fourth inning with a 3-0 lead.

* Mookie Betts said No. He led off the fourth with a homer into one of the light towers in left. The Red Sox took the lead with three in the fifth, highlighted by Jackie Bradley's double off the now-ornamental ladder in left. Hanley Ramirez went deep in the sixth and Tzu-Wei Lin tripled and scored in the seventh.

David Price (7-6-3-0-7, 112) pitched well, outside of a rough patch in the fourth (when a Twins rally was extended because he failed to cover first base on a grounder to first). Price finished strong, though, retiring his last six batters, four by strikeout. He faced 27 batters overall and went to a three-ball count only four times (none of them coming after the fourth inning).

Brian Dozier began the game with a double to left-center. Price got the next three batters, but Dozier came around, scoring on Joe Mauer's grounder to short. Robbie Grossman hit a ground-rule double to start the fourth. Mauer grounded to Mitch Moreland at first, but Price was late getting off the mound, and because Grossman thought the ball might have been caught, he had to stay at second (so much for being in "scoring position"). Price bore down. He struck out Miguel Sano and got Eduardo Escobar on a fly to right. But Jorge Polanco bashed a 2-2 changeup off the top of the Wall, missing a home run by maybe one inch (seriously). Both runners scored and Minnesota led 3-0.

Betts's home run in the fourth was his 13th of the season, but only his second at Fenway. Ramirez walked to open the fifth - and scored from first when Bradley's opposite-field double hit the ladder, bounced up a bit, then fell straight down. Christian Vazquez was safe when his grounder to Polanco hit off the shortstop's wrist for an error. The runners moved up when Lin grounded to the pitcher and Bradley scored on Deven Marrero's dribbler to third, tying the game at 3-3. Betts's grounder up the middle threaded the needle, getting past both the shortstop and second baseman, scoring Vazquez and giving Boston the lead.

With two outs in the sixth, Ramirez banged a 3-0 pitch over the wall in dead center. Boston bashed Buddy Boshers in the seventh. Lin tripled to deep right. Max Kepler raced back and waved his glove at the long drive, but could not catch it. Marrero then doubled to left, making it 6-3.

Joe Kelly retired the side in order in the eighth, but he needed 27 pitches (12 of which were to Robbie Grossman). In the ninth, Craig Kimbrel also had a 12-pitch battle, with Escobar, who ended it with a one-out single. Polanco flied to the track in right for the second out and Kimbrel fanned Kepler. The Red Sox did not issue a walk to the Twins.

Bradley went 3-for-4, and his one out was a smoking liner to first base that Mauer caught at his shoe tops.

For What It's Worth: I'm assuming this is true. Dave O'Brien stated that David Ortiz and Babe Ruth are the only two players in major league history to have 10+ seasons of 30 home runs and 100 RBI for their non-original team. (That's slicing it a bit thin for me, but any time you can join Ruth as the only two players to do anything, it's probably worth pointing out.)

Kyle Gibson / David Price

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Ramirez, DH
Bradley, CF
Vazquez, C
Lin, 2B
Marrero, 3B