Chris Sale pitched a very solid seven innings, allowing no runs on four hits to earn his seventh win Sunday afternoon as the Boston Red Sox blanked the Seattle Mariners 5-0 at Fenway Park to take the three game series and the season series 4-3.
Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (7-5) matched Sale pitching in a scoreless game until the bottom of the fifth. Rafael Devers doubled in Xander Bogaerts to make it 1-0 Boston. That was followed up by a pair of RBI sacrifice flies each by Sandy Leon and Mookie Betts to make it 3-0. Mitch Moreland added a two run homer in the bottom of the sixth, his 11th of the year to finish off the scoring. Jackie Bradley Jr. had three singles and reached base all three times, while JD Martinez, Bogaerts, Eduardo Nunez, and Devers all had one hit a piece.
Sale (7-4), only walked one batter and struck out 13. Joe Kelly and Matt Barnes each pitched a scoreless and hitless inning each. Boston (52-27) is now in a first place tie with the NY Yankees in the A.L. East, as New York was swept at Tampa Bay over the weekend.
Boston has a day off Monday before opening a three game series at Fenway versus the Los Angeles Angels Tuesday at 7:10. A pair of lefties will start it off as David Price will climb the hill for the Sox in the opener, to be opposed by Angels lefty John Lamb.
