The Tampa Bay Rays hit four homeruns, and Blake Snell pitched well in six innings Sunday afternoon as the visitors won for the third time in four games on the weekend with a 6-1 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park in the series finale.
Tampa (40-24) jumped ahead right away off Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez. Brandon Lowe singled in a run, and Travis d’Arnaud hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 in the top of the first inning. Guillermo Heredia extended it to 3-0 with a solo homer to center in the second. Marco Hernandez got the Sox on the board with an RBI single in the bottom of the second to cut it to 3-1.
Lowe hit his first of two homers in the sixth, the solo bomb for the rookie made it 4-1. The Rays then got some insurance in the seventh off Sox reliever Marcus Walden. Yanny Diaz led off with a solo homer deep into the Monster Seats in left, and Lowe homered to center again. The first year second baseman now has 13 homeruns on the season. Boston (34-32) had two runners on and noone out in the first and second inning, and had two on and one out in seventh but could never come up with the big hit.
Jackie Bradley Jr., Sandy Leon, and Hernandez all had two hits a piece for the Red Sox. Rodriguez (6-4) allowed four runs on seven hits, with two walks and seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings to take the loss. Lowe had three hits, while Avisail Garcia and d’Arnaud had two a piece to lead the 14 hit Tampa attack. Snell (4-5) allowed one run on five hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts in 6.0 innings to get the win.
Boston will begin a four game series on Monday night against the team they are fighting for the second wild card spot with, the Texas Rangers. First pitch is 7:10, with Chris Sale taking the hill for the Sox and Mike Minor taking the ball for the Rangers.
