For the second straight night all three Boston teams were in action. The Red Sox played game two of their series with the Seattle Mariners, while the Bruins and Celtics were on the road against the Buffalo Sabres and Brooklyn Nets respectively.
At Fenway Park, the Red Sox held off a late charge in the ninth inning to pick up a 6-5 win over the Mariners.
After Seattle took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Xander Bogaerts put Boston (13-8) ahead for good with a two-run homerun in the bottom half. JD Martinez also homered, a solo shot was his seventh of the season. Alex Verdugo had three hits, and Bogaerts knocked in three runs. The Mariners (12-8) after falling behind 6-2, got a one out three-run homer from Kyle Seager in the ninth inning to pull within one off Sox closer Matt Barnes. Barnes was able to get the next two batters to end the game. Martin Perez started on the mound and got a no decision allowing two runs on four hits in 3.2 innings. Hirokazu Sawumara (1-0) got his first MLB win in relief, while Garrett Whitlock and Adam Ottavino both got holds.
At the Keybank Center in Buffalo, the Bruins had their six game win streak snapped in a 6-4 loss to the Sabres.
Steven Kampfer, Nick Ritchie, Kevan Miller, and Taylor Hall scored for Boston who fall to 27-13-6. Sam Reinhart had a hat trick for Buffalo (13-28-7), and now has 20 goals on the year. Tuuka Rask stopped 24 shots in the loss, and was replaced by Jaroslav Halak early in the third period. Halak stopped four of five in relief. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 36 saves in the win in his NHL debut in goal for the Sabres.
At the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Nets put five players in double figures to take down the Celtics 109-104.
Jayson Tatum had a game high 38 points for Boston (32-28), but it wasn’t enough as Brooklyn outscored them 39-26 in the second quarter to take control. Rookie Payton Pritchard also had 22 points for the C’s, while Marcus Smart had 19. They played without Jaylen Brown and Kemba Walker. Joe Harris had 20 points to lead the Nets (40-20), who grabbed sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference. With the win, Brooklyn sweeps the season series over Boston 4-0.
