The Sox bats were silenced Thursday night as the Minnesota Twins eked out a 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday Night at Fenway Park behind a stellar performance from Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson.
Mookie Betts scored the only run of the game for the Red Sox in the first inning on a double play that would score Blake Swihart. After that, the Sox bats were stymied and silenced for the rest of the night.
Jackie Bradley Jr. would make a stellar defensive play throwing out Joe Mauer at the plate preserving the one-run lead in the early innings. Brock Holt threw out a Twins player at home preserving the 1-0 lead in the sixth inning
The Twins would tie things up in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Ehire Adrianza. Later in the eighth, the Twins would get some help from Brian Dozier who stole second base and would later score on a Mitch Garver double to take a 2-1 lead.
Things got interesting come the 9th inning when the Red Sox faced closer Fernando Rodney who was a bit shaky to start the inning, giving up a single and walking two to make the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th for the Sox, but was able to get out of it after coming back from a 3-0 count and striking out Jackie Bradley Jr. to end the game.
The Sox fall to 71-33 on the season and lead the Yankees by 4.5 games in the AL East
Twins improve to 48-53 on the season
Final pitching lines for the Sox and Twins
Brian Johnson: 5.2 Innings Pitched, 0 Earned Runs and five Strikeouts
Kyle Gibson: 8 Innings Pitched, one Earned Run and seven Strikeouts
The Sox and Twins will face off in Game 2 Friday night at 7:10 pm with a pitching matchup between Chris Sale and Lance Lynn
