G63: Rays 5, Red Sox 1

Rays    - 010 201 001 - 5 10  0
Red Sox - 000 000 001 - 1  4  0

On a warm Friday night at Fenway, the second-place Rays had four runs and eight hits before the Red Sox were blessed with their first baserunner. Yonny Chirinos (8-2-0-2-6, 101) retired the first fifteen Boston batters (in only his 14th career start), including 10 by groundout, and allowed only one ball out of the infield.

The Red Sox ended up loading the bases with one out in the sixth, but squandered what turned out to be their only chance to get back in the game when Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers both struck out.

Kevin Kiermaier (3-for-4) drove in four of Tampa Bay's five runs. Ji-Man Choi led off the second with a home run. After that, Kiermaier did the heavy lifting. In the fourth, the first two batters singled and then advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Rick Porcello (6-8-4-1-4, 100) got two outs before Kiermaier's hard grounder went under Mitch Moreland's glove at first and into right field to make it 3-0. In the sixth, Porcello again gave up hits to the first two Rays. One out later, Kiermaier's single to left gave Tampa Bay a 4-0 lead.

Chirinos walked Brock Holt to begin the home sixth. Jackie Bradley ruined the 25-year-old right-hander's no-hit bid with a single to left. Christian Vázquez hit for Sandy León and flied to right. Mookie Betts walked and, surprisingly, Boston had the potential tying run at the plate. But Benintendi took a 2-2 pitch on the inside black for strike three and Devers failed to connect with a 1-2 splitter.

That was it for Boston's chances. Xander Bogaerts led off the seventh with a single, but he never advanced as Michael Chavis (pinch-hitting for Moreland, who left with tightness in his right quad) lined out (softly) to second, Eduardo Núñez struck out, and Holt grounded back to Chirinos. The Red Sox went in order in the eighth (K, 4-3, F9).

Kiermaier popped a solo home run off Mike Shawaryn in the top of the ninth and Emilio Pagan took the mound for the Rays in the home half. Benintendi doubled to center and scored on Bogaerts's one-out double high off the Wall. Chavis flied to the edge of the track in left and Núñez grounded to third.

The Red Sox and Rays will play two games tomorrow. The first game is scheduled for 1:00 PM and the second game (a makeup of April 26's postponement) will be at 6:00 PM.

AL East: The Yankees blew a 2-0 lead and lost for the fourth time in five games, bowing to Cleveland 5-2. The Red Sox stayed 6.5 GB, but the Rays moved to 0.5 GB.

Yonny Chirinos / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Devers, 3B
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Núñez, DH
Holt, 2B
Bradley, CF
León, C

J.D. Martinez left yesterday's game with back spasms and is out of the lineup today. Mitch Moreland returns from the injured list, with Ryan Weber heading back to Pawtucket.

Most Runs Scored (AL)

1. Xander Bogaerts    50
2. Mookie Betts       48
3. Rafael Devers      47
4. Mike Trout         46
4. Mitch Haniger      46
6. Alex Bregman       43
6. Edwin Encarnacion  43

After knocking in only three runs in his first 24 games, Rafael Devers has 37 RBI in his last 37 games.

Michael Chavis has struck out in:

40 of his last 111 plate appearances since May  5 (36.0%) (.216/.279/.353)
29 of his last  70 plate appearances since May 20 (41.4%) (.188/.257/.313)
20 of his last  42 plate appearances since May 26 (47.6%) (.158/.238/.211)
15 of his last  29 plate appearances since May 29 (51.7%) (.107/.138/.179)

Chavis has a strikeout in 33 of his 39 starts and has at least two strikeouts in 18 of the 40 games in which he has come to the plate at least twice. The AL's pitchers have figured him out and he has not yet adjusted.

April 20-May 20 (26 games): .296/.389/.592  .981
May 21-June 6 (15 games):   .169/.246/.254  .500

AL East: MFY/Cleveland, 7 PM.