It took seven pitchers, but the Red Sox pieced together a 5-3 victory over the Washington Nationals, getting 6.2 innings of scoreless relief from their bullpen.
The Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on a three-run homer from Xander Bogaerts. tripled and scored in the second and then chipped in with a solo homer in the fourth.
The Nationals banged out 11 hits, but stranded 13 baserunners.
WHO: Red Sox (10-22) vs. Nationals (12-17)
WHEN: 7:35 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: Nationals 1-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Chris Mazza (0-1, 6.35) vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez (1-3, 6.48)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Verdugo LF
Devers 3B
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Moreland 1B
Vazquez C
Pillar RF
Bradley CF
Chavis 2B
NATIONALS
Turner SS
Soto LF
Kendrick DH
Cabrera 3B
Eaton RF
Suzuki C
Garcia 2B
Thames 1B
Robles CF
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
9:30 You can't run on Verdugo. Throws out Kurt Suzuki at the plate, his seventh outfield assist of the season, tops in the majors.
9:15 Kevin Pillar over everything for No. 4 this season.
8:37 It would seem inconceivable that a major league pitcher would use 75 pitches to get a grand total of seven outs -- but that's what Mazza did tonight.
8:21 Mazza doesn't do himself any favors by trying to flip a slow roller to first, but gets way too much on it and sends it far over the head of Mitch Moreland. Instead of one out and a runner on third, Nats have a run in, a runner on second and no out.
8:12 Jackie Bradley Jr. with soft, slow tapper down the first base line, enough to plate Pillar from third.
8:09 Red Sox are taking mighty cuts against Sanchez. This time, it's Kevin Pillar who leads off the second with a triple to the triangle.
7:57 Xander Bogaerts, who loves the ball up, swings at a fastball neck-high and hits it out to straight-away center for a three-run homer. That's only the third three-run shot for the Sox this season.
7:55 J.D. Martinez snaps an 0-for-17 slump with a wall double to left-center. Strange thing is, Alex Verdugo, an aggressive baserunner, probably should have scored from first. It wasn't like there was a chance of that ball being caught.
7:42 Nice work by Chris Mazza, who creates a first-and-third one-out jam, then gets Asdrubal Cabrera to chase a third strike and then got Adam Eaton on a comebacker.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- The Red Sox placed RHP Nathan Eovaldi on the IL with a right calf strain. Eovaldi last pitched Aug. 20 in Baltimore and subsequently had his next scheduled start pushed back twice. As recently as Friday afternoon, the Sox had planned to have Eovaldi start the final game of the series with the Nats on Sunday afternoon, but during a bullpen session late Friday afternoon, Eovaldi, while feeling improvement, still experienced some tightness in the area. On Saturday, the Sox made the determination to put him on IL, retroactive three days. He'll be eligible to come off the IL and is tentatively throw a bullpen Sunday and another one Wednesday. For now, the plan is to have him pitch Saturday, Sept. 5 against Toronto. "We've been chasing this thing around,'' said Ron Roenicke. "Being able to back-date it and have a plan, we feel really good about him being ready for Saturday. You always wonder what's going on and how long is this going to last, but we feel pretty good about where he is and when he'll be back.''
- Placing Eovaldi on the IL also served to open a roster spot for Chris Mazza, Saturday night's starter.
- The Sox don't have any current plans to recall Nick Pivetta, obtained a week ago from the Phillies in the deal that sent Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to Philadelphia. Chaim Bloom visited the alternate training site in Pawtucket Thursday to meet with Pivetta and determined that he needs to be stretched out further. "We're going to stretch him out and see when that allows us to bring him up,'' said Roenicke, "where we feel really confident that he's ready and he's extended out and built up enough strength to pitch the innings.''
- Monday, the Sox will start RHP Colten Brewer in the opener of their series with the Atlanta Braves. They're currently undecided about Tuesday's start, though LHP Kyle Hart is a candidate.
- J.D. Martinez is 0-for-16. "Every time I think he's going to get it going, the next day or two we go back in the other direction,'' said Roenicke. "I'm so used to this guy being consistent because he hits for average, he hits for power. To see him struggle for a time, I'm not used to seeing that. Somehow, we need to get him back. He's a huge part in that lineup. If we get him going, we'll certainly feel a lot better about what we're doing offensively. It's hard to see him going this length of time.'' Roenicke admitted that he's considered dropping Martinez lower in the lineup until he gets going, but doesn't want to stack the lineup with consecutive lefties or righties in the middle of the order.