Counter-balancing their three-game losing streak to start the season, the Red Sox finished off a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays with a convincing 9-2 shellacking.
J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts combined for five RBI and Nathan Eovaldi was dominant over seven innings as the Sox won their third straight and evened out their record to 3-3.
Martinez and Christian Vazquez each homered and together have supplied all four homers the Red Sox have hit this season. For Vazquez, it was his second homer in as many games.
Until Monday, the Rays had won eight straight meetings at Fenway between the two teams.
WHO: Red Sox (2-3) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (2-3)
WHEN: 1:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: Boston 2-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (0-1, 1.69) vs. LHP Ryan Yarbrough (0-0, 0.00)
TV/RADIO: YouTube; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
RAYS
Tsutsugo 1B
Meadows LF
Arozarena RF
Lowe 2B
Diaz DH
Wendle 3B
Margot CF
Mejia C
Adames SS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Devers 3B
Martinez LF
Bogaerts SS
Vazquez DH
Renfroe RF
Arroyo 2B
Dalbec 1B
Plawecki C
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: That's it for Eovaldi, who was superb, allowing a run on three hits over seven innings. Josh Taylor on. Eovalsi had 16 swings-and-misses and needed just 91 pitches to get through his outing.
B5: Bloop double for Christian Arroyo down the right field line and the Sox have batted around and have six runs this inning.
B5: Huge error by Willy Adames, who throws the ball away on a routine, broken-bat grounder that should have ended the inning. Instead, the error by Adames results in two more runs scoring.
B5: J.D. Martinez with his sixth double -- tops in MLB -- in six games, a Wall-scraper that scores two runs and the Sox are up, 5-1.
B5: Nice bit of plate coverage by Hernandez, who goes down to bottom of the zone and golfs a changeup to left,.
B4: After a game-tying homer in the ninth inning Tuesday night, Christian Vazquez gets fat cutter in the middle of the plate and drives it into the Monster Seats in left, giving the Sox their first lead.
B4: Xander Bogaerts fights off a cutter down-and-in and serves it into center, scoring Rafael Devers (walk).
B3: First hit of the season for Bobby Dalbec, whose nice, short swing sends a soft liner into CF.
T3: Nice, sprawling catch by Hunter Renfroe, who shoestrings a ball in medium RF, taking a hit away from Austin Meadows.
T3: Kiké Hernández charges the ball nicely and throws a pea -- on one hop -- to the plate. Throw is just a hair late as Mejia scores the first game.
T3: Eovaldi is consistently getting ahead of hitters -- a key for any pitcher, but Eovaldi in particular -- and is being aggressive within the zone, keeping his pitch count in check.
B1: Red Sox challenged a catch by Randy Arozarena near the foul pole in right field and replay overturns the catch on fan interference.
T1: Bobby Dalbec could have been eaten up by that shot to first, but played it well, tossing to covering.
PRE-GAME STATS: Tuesday's walk-off win was the first time in 67 years that the Red Sox had won a game in which they faced deficits three separate times from the ninth inning on...The last time they did so was Aug. 21, 1954 vs. the Yankees, when they won 10-9 in 12 innings....J.D. Martinez has the game-winning two run double and his hit marked the first time in 20 years that a Red Sox hitter turned in a hit which the Sox overcame a deficit for a walk-off win in extra innings...The last to do so was Manny Ramirez, who had a two-run single against the Yankees in the 10th inning on April 13, 2001...Martinez has multiple RBIs in each of his last three game and multiple hits in each of his last four...He has at least one extra-base hit in each of the last six games....Martinez leads the majors in doubles (five), extra-base hits (seven). He leads the AL in total bases (21)....Christian Vazquez had his second career game in which he homered, stole a base and threw out a runner attempting to steal...Of Vazquez's 41 career homers, 21 have either tied the score or given the Sox a lead...The Sox haven't allowed a homer in the first five games, covering 48 innings...They're the first team since the 2016 Cardinals to go five games into the season without allowing a homer...In their first run through the rotation, four of the five Red Sox starters threw at least five innings and allowed three earned runs or fewer; three of them allowed two earned runs or fewer....Over his last five regular season starts, Nathan Eovaldi is 3-1 with a 1.03 ERA and a 29-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio...Against Eovaldi, Joey Wendle is 5-for-7 in his career and Austin Meadows is 5-for-9 with a homer...Meanwhile, Martinez is 9-for-15 with two homers against Yarbrough while Vazquez is 6-for-16 with two homers.
NOTES:
- It's a quick turnaround for the Red Sox today, hours after their post-midnight, walk-off win. Outfielder Alex Verdugo got the day off with J.D. Martinez getting his first start in the outfield. The Sox are in the middle of a stretch that has them playing 26 games in the span of 27 days. As such, he'll give Xander Bogaerts his first day off Thursday in Baltimore. Coupled with Friday's scheduled day off -- the team's last for a while -- that will give Bogaerts two days in a row.
- After being out of the lineup for the first two games of the Tampa series, Bobby Dalbec was back at first base, hitting eight. Dalbec has yet to collect his first hi. "Still early. It's part of baseball, right?'' said Cora. "He got two days off to work on a few things. Hopefully he can stay on pitches, go the other way, do the little things that the other guys have been doing. He's going to be out there most of the time.''
- Cora was pleased that Rafael Devers collected two hits Monday night, ending an 0-for-10 start to his season. "I think on Sunday, he hit the ball hard three times,'' Cora said. "You could tell that he's getting there. Obviously, it didn't start well, but he got a good pitch yesterday to hit. I think the lefty-lefty base hit told me more about where he's at. That's a good sign.''
- Eduardo Rodriguez is excited to make his debut Thursday in Baltimore. "It will mean a lot after everything I went through last year,'' he said. "It's been a year and a few months since the last time I was on the mound for a real game. I'm going to really appreciate (the chance) to be on the mound. I'm 100 percent ready and that's all that matter.'' Rodriguez has been working with trainers and focused on his shoulder program in the last few weeks as he built back his arm strength. "It was hard for me because I really wanted to go out there for the first game of the season,'' he said. "I didn't want to miss any starts. But I don't want to go out there and try to do something that might do something else to my body or shoulder.'' Rodriguez said he couldn't anticipate what emotions he might feel Thursday afternoon on the Camden Yards mound.
- To make room for Rodriguez, the Red Sox optioned RHP Tanner Houck to their alternate site. Houck made one start and appeared for an inning of relief Monday night.