Final: Red Sox 5, Padres 4

Brock Holt led off the top of the ninth inning with a homer, snapping a tie game and sending the Red Sox to a 5-4 win over the San Diego Padres.

Brandon Workman fanned Eric Hosmer on three pitches with the potential tying run on second and winning run on first in the bottom of the ninth

The Red Sox had raced to a 4-0 lead in the fourth, but the Padres began chipping away. A two-run homer by  Hosmer cut the Sox lead in half, and a run-scoring single by Ty France off Josh Taylor in the seventh finally pulled them even.

Nathan Eovaldi, making his second start since April, lasted just three-plus innings, needing 64 pitches to get just nine outs.

WHO: Red Sox (69-61) vs. San Diego Padres (59-68)
WHEN: 8:40 p.m.
WHERE: Petco Park
SERIES TO DATE Boston 1-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (1-0, 6.69) vs. RHP Dinelson Lamet (2-2, 3.95)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM

IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:

11:58  Brock Holt extends the Red Sox consecutive homer streak to 15 games -- but more importantly, snaps a 4-4 tie in the top of the ninth with a long homer to RF, golfing a low fastball out.

11:33  Meanwhile, the Red Sox have one hit -- a single -- since the fourth inning.

11:28  Ryan Brasier was terrific in his first inning of work, but command was off when he came back out for the seventh. Walk, hit batsman leaves two on and pinch-hitter Ty France greets Josh Taylor with a run-scoring single, tying the game. That's blown save No. 23 for the Sox.

10:38  Home plate umpire Todd Tichenor is not having a good night. He's missed at least a half dozen pitches -- some by a lot.

10:04 Eovaldi throws a fastball to the inner half and Eric Hosmer crushes it into the right field seats. One swing cuts the Red Sox' lead in half and ends Eovaldi's night. He threw just 64 pitches and got just nine outs.

9:49  Christian Vazquez drives a curveball to the alley in left-center, scoring two, and the Red Sox have outscored the Padres 14-0 in in 13 innings.

9:23  Mookie Betts shoots a ball through the hole into RF, scoring Brock Holt from second.

9:20  Nobody can bunt anymore. Nobody.

9:13  Talked to a former major league pitcher and scout this week, who couldn't understand why Nathan Eovaldi was often throwing five or six different pitches. Tonight, Eovaldi is focusing almost exclusively on his four-seamer and curveball and through two innings, has had better results.

LINEUPS:



RED SOX

Betts CF
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Martinez RF
Benintendi LF
Vazquez C
Moreland 1B
Holt 2B
Eovaldi P

PADRES

Garcia 2B
Naylor LF
Machado 3B
Hosmer 1B
Renfroe RF
Margot CF
Urias SS
Hedges C
Lamet P

 

WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox opened their eight-game road trip with an 11-0 win Friday night over the Padres, snapping a two-game losing streak...They're 6-2 in their last eight games...The 11-0 shutout Friday was the second-biggest margin of victory for the Sox in an interleague shutout, eclipsed only by the Sox' 15-0 win over Montreal in 1998....The Sox have eight shutout wins this season, third in the American League...The Sox have won 19 of their last 20 games when their starting pitcher goes six or more innings and allows three earned runs or less...Overall in 2019, the Sox are 36-11 when they get a quality start, a winning percentage of .766...The Sox are 7-0 in the last seven games when their starter gives them at least seven innings....The Sox have homered in 14 straight games, their longest streak of the season and the sixth longest in franchise history...The Sox have at least one homer in 26 of their last 27 games and in 47 of the last 51....In that 51-game stretch, they've homered 91 times, ranking them fifth in that span...The Sox are on pace to finish with 251 homers, which would break the franchise record of 238, set in 2003...They're also on pace for 648 extra-base hits, which would leave them one shy of the franchise mark of 649, also set in 2003...Over the last dozen games 51.4 percent of the team's hits have gone for extra bases...In the first inning of the last 11 games, Mookie Betts is 6-for-11 with five doubles and a triple...Overall, 12 of his last 16 hits have gone for extra bases....Betts has hit safely in his last eight games...In the 46 games since the start of July, Betts is batting .328 with a .990 OPS...Over his last 11 games, Rafael Devers is hitting .480 (24-for-50) with 14 extra-base hits....He leads the majors in hits (171), doubles (48) , extra-base hits (78) and total bases (306)….He needs just two more doubles to become the ninth player in Red Sox history to hit 50 or more doubles in a season...At 22, he would be the youngest to reach that milestone...J.D. Martinez is hitting .398 (45-for-113) in his last 29 games with 11 homers and 31 RBI....In that span, he leads the majors in OPS, slugging percentage, and OPS and is tied for second in RBI.....The Red Sox bullpen has allowed only three earned runs in the last 29.1 innings for a 0.92 ERA...Since July 24, the Sox bullpen ERA of 2.76 is the lowest in MLB....Nathan Eovaldi has made five starts this season, with an ERA of 7.43....The Sox, however, are 4-1 in those five games...Manny Machado is 1-for-10 with a homer lifetime against Eovaldi while Eric Hosmer is 3-for-5 and Wil Myers is 1-for.2...Martinez is 1-for-6 with a homer against Dinelson Lamet.