Taking full advantage of some wildness on the part of the Seattle pitching staff, the Red Sox raced out to a big lead early, then held off the Mariners, 5-3.
The Sox worked a total of seven walks, including six in the first two innings, two with the bases loaded.
Eduardo Rodriguez gave the Sox seven strong innings, allowing three runs without issuing a walk and striking out eight.
The victory evened the Sox' record on their 10-game homestand at 5-5.
WHO: Red Sox (13-9) vs. Seattle Mariners (13-8)
WHEN: 1:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: Seattle 2-1
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (3-0, 3.38) vs. LHP Nick Margevicius (0-1, 5.40)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
MARINERS
Haniger DH
France 2B
Seager 3B
Lewis CF
White 1B
Moore RF
Haggerty LF
Murphy C
Crawford SS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Devers 3b
Martinez LF
Bogaerts DH
Vazquez C
Renfroe RF
Gonzalez SS
Arroyo 2B
Dalbec 1B
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: Marwin Gonzalez with a thing of beauty at shortstop, deftly flipping the ball backhand from his glove to Arroyo at second to start a huge double play.
B5: Alex Cora has complained about poor situational hitting and that inning is what concerns him -- leadoff double by J.D. Martinez, then strand him.
T4: Three straight hits off Rodriguez and the Mariners have cut the lead to just two runs.
T3: Hernandez has shown a lot of range in center field. There, he drifted over and caught a ball in front of the home bullpen -- about ankle high.
B2: Poor baserunning on the part of Rafael Devers, who inexplicably rounds third despite third base coach Carlos Febles clearly holding him up. Could have cost a much bigger inning. Sox should have had second-and-third with one out.
B2: This is amateur hour. The Mariners have walked six of the first 11 hitters.
B1: Red Sox take full advantage of some wildness on the part of Mariners' pitching, using four walks and a hit batsman to produce four runs.
B1: Red Sox displaying some selectivity at the plate, with their fourth walk of the inning and second straight with the bases loaded. That's all for Nick Margevicius, who's lifted after just a third of an inning.
B1: Christian Vazquez goes the other way with a line drive, but because right fielder Dylan Moore had a shot on catching that, Kiké Hernández had a hold up at third and Sox only get a run.
T1: Familiar story for the Sox, who allow a run in the top of the first for the eighth time in the last 10 games. Consecutive doubles from Mitch Haniger and Ty France give the Mariners a quick lead.
PRE-GAME STATS: The Red Sox today conclude their longest homestand of the season (10 games) and they'll need a win in the series finale to earn a .500 record on the homestand....Meanwhile, the Sox are 6-1 on the road this season as they get ready to embark on a six-game road trip to New York and Texas...The Sox are 6-1 when scoring first, but have allowed at least one run in the first inning in seven of the last nine games..Red Sox pitchers have allowed only eight homers in the last 13 games...According to Baseball Savant: Of the 547 batted balls allowed by Red Sox pitchers, only 30 have been barreled, the lowest percentage in the majors... After giving up just six earned runs in the a 10-game stretch, the Red Sox bullpen has allowed 10 earned runs in the last 3 games (13.1 IP)...Overall, Sox relievers rank sixth in the AL and seventh in the majors in ERA (3.36).....Eduardo Rodriguez has thrown at least 5.0 innings in each of his last 31 starts, dating back to May 4, 2019...That's the third-longest active streak in the majors behind Shane Bieber (37) and Justin Verlander (33). The Sox are 48-12 (.800) in Rodriguez’s starts since the beginning of 2018...They are 17-3 in his last 20, having won each of his last seven....The Red Sox have scored four runs or fewer in six of their last eight games...When scoring five or more runs this season, the Red Sox are 10-0...Mitch Haniger is 3-for-15 in his career against Rodriguez while Kyle Seager is 3-for-12 with a homer..
NOTES:
- The Sox made a last-minute lineup change, scratching Alex Verdugo. He had cramped up during Saturday's game. Verdugo was in the original lineup in center field, before being pulled. The Sox then shifted Kike Hernandez to center and inserted Christian Arroyo into the lineup at second base.
- The Red Sox have allowed 18 first-inning runs in 22 games so far. "It's obviously something we'd love to have an answer for,'' said Alex Cora. "We just need to get outs. (Saturday), we had one out and an 0-and-2 count on the second hitter and they ended up scoring. It will be good to get a shutdown inning right away and give us a chance to get the lead.''
- Cora sat OF Franchy Cordero with a lefty scheduled. He's been scuffling at the plate as the strikeouts pile up. "Keep working hard, that's the most important thing,'' said Cora. "He's in-between right now -- late on fastballs and out in front on off-speed pitches. That's not a good place to be. It's very uncomfortable because you know you're behind, you know you can keep to the fastball. But at the same time, they're going to bounce a breaking ball or fade away the changeup and you don't feel you can stay back. All you can do is keep working. We saw him early in the season, putting the ball in play, going the other way. He was actually controlling the strike zone. I think it starts with that -- control the strike zone. If he does that, he'll be OK. We're not going to give up on a player on April 25. We'll keep pushing, keep encouraging him, keep showing him video and working with him.'' Cora also thinks the lack of playing time due to nagging injuries has hampered his development over the last few seasons and has been an issue.
- The Sox have slumped offensively of late, and Cora said it's been a matter of not putting the ball in play enough. "We're going to strike out. We knew that at the start of the season. But there are certain at-bats, team at-bats (where hitters have to adjust, cut down swing and "give up'' to the team) and we've got to do a better job with those.''
- Danny Santana (foot) remains in Fort Myers as he rehabs. "He's progressing well,'' said Cora.
- Cora said the Sox aren't yet ready to go with 13 position players and 13 pitchers. Currently, they're at 14 pitchers and 12 position players, which leaves them with just three position players on the bench. "If we're going to do that, we need our starters to go deep into the game,'' he said. "Obviously, there are certain days when you feel short. But most of the time, you don't. We can mix and match with everybody and move people around. We have that luxury. As of now, we believe it's better to protect the pitching staff for now and when all these guys get on track and are giving us quality starts, going six innings, then maybe we'll have that conversation and we might change course.''
- Cora said the Sox would like to split up Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez in the rotation. Currently, Rodriguez follows immediately after Eovaldi, but given that they're the two most dependable starters when it comes to providing length, in time, the Sox would like to separate them.
