Garrett Richards turned in the best start of the young season, allowing just one run over seven innings and the Red Sox began their road trip with a 2-1 victory over the New York Mets.
Richards, who had huge wildness problems in his last outing, didn't issue a single walk and fanned 10 to pick up his first win with his new team.
Bobby Dalbec erased a 1-0 New York lead with his first homer of the season in the third inning. A bloop single from Rafael Devers plated Kiké Hernández in the sixth inning.
WHO: Red Sox (14-9) vs. New York Mets (9-8)
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Citi Field
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Garrett Richards (0-2, 6.48) vs. LHP David Peterson (1-2, 6.75)
SERIES TO DATE: (First meeting)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Devers 3B
Martinez LF
Bogaerts SS
Vazquez C
Renfroe RF
Gonzalez 2B
Dalbec 1B
Richards P
METS
Lindor SS
Smith LF
Alonso 1B
Conforto RF
Davis 3B
McNeil 2B
McCann C
Peterson P
Pillar CF
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
B7: What a turnaround performance on the part of Richards, who goes from a six-walk disaster in his last outing to a seven-inning, one-run, 10-strikeout and no walk gem tonight.
B6: Richards wiggles out of a first-and-second mess by getting J.D. Davis to fly harmlessly to left.
T6: Some smart baserunning by Kiké Hernández puts the Red Sox ahead 2-1. Hernandez, at second, saw the an opposite-field blooper off the bat of Rafael Devers was not going to be caught in left, and scored easily.
B5: Just the second time this season that Christian Vazquez has thrown out someone attempting to steal -- but it's a big one, as Kevin Pillar gets gunned down at second to end the fifth.
B5: Not the best throw from J.D. Martinez in left, but Marwin Gonzalez does a nice job with the tag, sprawling across the bag to nail James McCann, out stretching.
B4: All of a sudden, the Mets are taking much better swings off Richards, making more solid contact than they have in the first three innings.
B4: It's just the fourth inning and already, Richards has a season-high five strikeouts.
T3: Bobby Dalbec goes down and gets a slider and drives it to straightaway CF for his first homer of the season. Nice, smooth swing without a lot of effort from Dalbec, tying the game.
B2 Jeff McNeil gets a fastball down and in on the first pitch from Richards and golfs it into the second deck to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.
B1 Strong first inning for Garrett Richards, who gets ahead and shows far better command that he did time out.
PRE-GAME STATS: Since getting swept in the first series of the series, the Red Sox haven't lost a series yet, going 3-0-3 in the previous six series...The Sox are 14-6 in their last 20 games...The last seven seasons the Red Sox began a year 14-9, they reached the postseason: 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2018...The Sox' +20 in run differential is fifth best in the majors...The Sox lead the American League East by three games, the biggest lead of any first-place team...Tonight marks the start of a six-game road trip for the Red Sox, who are 6-1 on the road this season...Since the start of the 2016 season, the Red Sox road winning percentage of .575 is second-best in the big leagues only to Houston's .580...The Red Sox are first in MLB with 11 come-from-behind wins;...Boston is 8-8 when their opponent scores the game’s first run...They allowed at least 1 run in the 1st inning in 8 of their last 10 games, going 4-4 in those....When they score first, the Sox are 6-1 and they're 14-1 when holding a lead at any point in the game...:In interleague games between the Mets and Red Sox, the visiting team has won nine of the last 13 meetings, including each of the last four...Of the last 25 games, 19 have been decided by either one or two runs, including each of the last 11 in New York...This season marks the 11th year in which the Sox and Mets have met in Interleague play (also 1997- 2001, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2018, and 2020)....All-time, the Red Sox are 263-180 (.594) against the NL, the best interleague winning percentage in the majors. From 2003-18, the Sox had a .660 win % against NL clubs (198-102).; since then, however, they've gone just 10-10 in the last 2 seasons...The Sox lead MLB in average (.276), slugging percentage (.455), OPS (.794), and doubles (54)...They also lead the AL and rank second in the majors in runs scored (119), and third with a .340 OBP ranks....The Sox have score five or more runs in almost half (11), tying them for the most such games in the A.L...When scoring four or more earned runs, the Red Sox are 13-0; last year, they were just 22-18 in such games...The Red Sox have a 3.94 staff ERA, ranking them sixth in the AL and 12th among all MLB teams....Sox pitchers have allowed only eight homers in their last 14 games , spanning 118.1 innings...They have surrendered 0.62 HR/9.0 IP, second-fewest in the majors behind only the Mets (0.57)...They have allowed multiple homers only four times and remain the only team yet to allow as many as many as three homers in a game....Sox starters have gone at least five innings in 17 of their 23 games, the second-most in the league behind only Oakland at 18.....However, in the last 10 games, the Sox have gotten five innings or more only five times after having gotten a minimum of five in 12 of the previous 13 games...The Sox have four regulars with an OPS of .900 or better: J.D. Martinez (1.199), Xander Bogaerts (.976), Alex Verdugo (.908), and Rafael Devers (.907)...Martinez leads the majors in extra-base hit (17) and total bases (61) and is tied for the lead in RBI (21) and doubles (10)...He is also tied for the AL lead in homers (seven)... Francisco Lindor is 1-for-8 lifetime with five strikeouts against Richards while Kevin Pillar is 3-for-9...Christian Arroyo is hitless over his last 10 at-bats...Bogaerts and Verdugo both have hit in seven straight.
NOTES:
- The Red Sox are a bit banged up with two position players on the bench at less than 100 percent. INF Christian Arroyo (hand) can contribute in the field and on the bases, but not much at the plate. Meanwhile, OF Alex Verdugo (hamstring) is available, but isn't in the starting lineup. "We'll be very limited,'' admitted Alex Cora. "But this is the roster that we have. As a group, we'll make decisions based on what we can do and what we can't do. It's two games. Get the lead and that will solve all the problems.'' Cora said the Sox would prefer to stay away from Arroyo until they get to Texas Thursday.
- The Red Sox taxi squad for this series is: C Chris Hermann, INF Jonathan Arauz, OF Cesar Pulleo, RHP Eduard Bazardo and RHP Daniel Gossett.
- Cora acknowledged the obvious: the bottom of the lineup is not producing as expected. "We knew we were going to have some swing and misses,'' he said. "But we have to make contact. It's important. I think they're working hard at it. Bobby (Dalbec) has done an amazing job the last 10 days. Hunter (Renfroe), I know numbers-wise he's struggling, but I think the swings were better the last two days. We need them. We need them to produce. We need runners for the top of the lineup. The bottom of the lineup, we were counting on power numbers, hit home runs. So far, it hasn't worked out. But we still have a good offense without them contributing yet. At some point, they're going to start doing that. Hopefully, it starts tonight.''
- Cora confirmed that OF Jarren Duran has been playing some left field at the alternate site in Worcester, a sign, perhaps, that Duran could be looked at soon if Renfroe and/or Franchy Cordero don't start to hit. "He'll see some action in left field, he'll see some action in right field,'' Cora said. "Obviously, most of the time, he's going to play center field. But it's something he needs to do to keep getting better and keep the options open.''
