Xander Bogaerts homered twice and drove in four runs and the Boston Red Sox pieced together a bullpen game on Wednesday afternoon using seven pitchers to take the rubber game of the three game series with a 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
The opener on the mound for Boston was Brian Johnson as he would square off with Shane Bieber the Cleveland starter who entered the game with 12 wins so far this season. Johnson pitched very solidly into the third inning. The Red Sox struck first. After Mookie Betts lined out to begin the top of the third inning, both Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts hit solo homeruns that snuck over the fences in left center and right field respectively. The homer by Devers landed into the first row just above the fence in left center, and Bogaerts got one to stay in fair ground and clear the fence just above the 325 foot sign in right. An error and then a wild pitch by Johnson in the home half of the third would bring home an Indians runner from third base to cut the lead in half at 2-1, and was the only mistake for any Sox pitcher on the afternoon. Some more solid bullpen work allowed the visitors to stay up by a run over the middle innings before breaking it open a bit in the seventh. With one out Betts would double to left. Devers was intentionally walked. Bogaerts then followed and took a 3-2 pitch off Cleveland reliever Nick Doody into almost the same exact location as the Devers homer earlier, and the three run homer made it 5-1 and ended the scoring on the day.
Johnson set the tone for the Boston pitching staff going the first 2.2 innings and allowing one run (none earned) on two hits. Marcus Walden, Darwinzon Hernandez, Josh Taylor, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Cashner, and Brandon Workman combined for 6.1 innings allowing no runs on just two hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. Eovaldi (1-0) got credited with the win as he fired the sixth and seventh innings. Bogaerts was the offensive star of the game with three hits and the four RBI. Devers, Andrew Benintendi, and Christian Vazquez all had two hits a piece. Devers had been 8 for his last 8 with four doubles, three singles and a homerun before being retired on a groundout in the fifth inning. JD Martinez went 0-5 and had his 12 game hitting streak and 22 game on base streak both come to an end. Cleveland (72-49) had no player with more than one hit as they were outhit in the game 12-4. Bieber (12-5) took the loss allowing two runs on seven hits in 6.0 innings.
Boston goes to 64-59 and has a day off before opening up a three game home series with Baltimore on Friday night at 7:10 p.m. Rick Porcello and Aaron Brooks is the scheduling pitching matchup.
Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts gets in position to field a groundball in a game against Tampa Bay earlier this season at Fenway Park. Bogaerts hit two homeruns Wednesday afternoon to lead the Red Sox to a win at Cleveland. Photo courtesy of Delaney Gardner
