The 2020 Red Sox continue to make history -- and not in a good way.
For the second straight night, the Red Sox had an opposing player hit three homers in the same game. It was Marcell Ozuna Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, Adam Duvall did the trick, belting three homers and knocking in five as the Atlanta Braves completed a sweep of the Sox with a 7-5 win.
It marked the first time in franchise history that opposing players hit three homers in consecutive games against the Sox. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig did the trick in consecutive days in 1930, but because there was a doubleheader involved on one of those days, they didn't pull off the feat in back-to-back games..
The Red Sox had a 5-3 lead after five, but Duvall added his second swat, a two-run job, in the sixth and added a solo belt in the eighth. Just for good measure, Ozuna mixed in another in the seventh.
WHO: Red Sox (12-24) vs. Atlanta Braves (21-14)
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: ATL 2-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Robinson Leyer (0-0, 9.00) vs. LHP Robbie Erlin (0-0, 6.00)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Verdugo RF
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Martinez LF
Plawecki C
Chavis DH
Bradley CF
Dalbec 1B
Peraza 2B
BRAVES
Swanson SS
Freeman 1B
Ozuna DH
Markakis LF
d'Arnaud C
Riley 3B
Duvall RF
Camargo 2B
Inciarte CF
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
10:15 Certainly seemed as if Bradley beat that throw to first, but for whatever reason, Red Sox didn't elect to challenge.
10:01 For the second straight night, an opposing slugger has gone deep three times in the same game -- Ozuna Tuesday night, Duvall tonight.
9:42 There goes that man again. Ozuna clears out against Andrew Triggs and sends a missile over everything in left. Fourth homer in the last two nights.
9:14 For the second night in a row, the Braves have a player with a multi-homer night. On Tuesday night, it was Marcell Ozuna with three; now, Duvall, with a two-run shot into the Monster Seats, has two. Game tied.
9:05 Martinez fights off a pitch and fists it into right, scoring Verdugo. Martinez has had three good at-bats tonight: double to center, long flyout to triangle and RBI-single.
8:57 Very strange game: The first 12 Braves hitters were 6-for-11 with a walk and two very hard-hit outs. Since then, they've been retired 10 in a row.
8:42 Bradley gets full extension on a fastball in the bottom of the zone and lifts it -- barely -- into the Monster Seats for his third homer of the year, snapping a 3-3- tie.
8:11 Kickham is being cuffed around in the first. He's faced seven hitters, allowed five hits and had another saved by Bradley. He's quickly coughed up the 3-0 lead he had at the start of the inning.
8:07 Jackie Bradley Jr. goes crashing into the scoreboard in LF to rob Dansby Swanson of extra bases.
8:02 This much is certain: the Braves are not hitting any cheap homers at Fenway. After three moon shots by Marcell Ozuna Tuesday night, Adam Duvall just sent one over everything in left, spoiling Mike Kickham's first major league appearance in six years.
7:50 Back in the lineup for the first time since Sunday, J.D. Martinez crushes a pitch to CF for a run-scoring double.
7:46 Rafael Devers again demonstrates his unique plate coverage, flicking the bat at a pitch on the outer half and driving it to left, scoring Alex Verudgo to give the Sox a quick 1-0 lead.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- Hours before tonight's game, the Red Sox made a change with their starting pitcher, going with RHP Robinson Leyer instead of LHP Mike Kickham..Kickham had been announced late Tuesday night as the starter, but with more thought given to it overnight, the Red Sox determined they liked the idea of a true opener -- Leyer -- to face the top of the Braves lineup before turning to Kickham as the "bulk'' pitcher to provide multiple innings.
- Jackie Bradley Jr.'s name came up briefly in some trade talks earlier this week, but with the deadline past and Bradley still with the Sox, he didn't appear to have lost any sleep worrying about his fate. "Back to work. We're here. Let's finish this thing out,'' said Bradley. Asked if had been a stressful time, Bradley said: "Not at all. Either you get traded or you don't. I don't see that being that stressful.'' Still, Bradley knows there are decisions ahead for him. "I'll be a free agent in a couple of weeks. That's the cool thing about free agency -- you get to weigh out all your options. We'll see, we'll see. It's something that you definitely have kind of to set out in front of you, look and the pros and cons and see what's best for your family and kind of just go from there. Every year, as you start winding down, you always try to finish strong. But obviously going into this year, it's just been a different year, so you're not really sure how things are going to be evaluated in the first place. You just want to go out there and do what you can, help you team and let the chips fall where they may. It's a shortened season and a lot of things can happen in a shortened season.'' Bradley recognizes that this won't be a normal free agent market this winter, with the big revenue drops. "Yeah, you think about it,'' he said. "It's part of what my job entails. But at the end of the day, it's not something I'm going to sit and worry about it because I can't control that outside factor. I can just control my play and my decisions. But other than that, I can't control the economy. That's out of my hands. We'll evaluate when I need to and go from there.''
- Braldley confirmed that that the third homer by the Braves' Marcell Ozuna on Tuesday night, which struck the camera platform on the back wall in straightaway CF, was the farthest hit ball to that area Bradley had ever seen in a game.
- RHP Nathan Eovaldi threw Wednesday afternoon and felt better. The Sox have him tentatively scheduled to throw a bullpen Thursday, but after suggesting that he could be ready to start Saturday, the day he's eligible to come off the IL with a calf strain, Ron Roenicke said the Sox are likely to push him back a day or two.
- J.D. Martinez returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games after being hit in the left hand by a fastball late in Sunday's game. Martinez was in left field.
- Prior to the game, the Red Sox placed LHP Kyle Hart (left hip impingement) on the IL and recalled RHP Andrew Triggs.