JD Martinez hit his 18th homerun of the season and had four RBI on Friday night, as the Boston Red Sox pounded out 14 hits en route to an easy 11-5 win in interleague play over the Philadelphia Phillies at Fenway Park in the opener of the last series before the All-Star break.
After Philadelphia (42-44) took an early 1-0 lead on a J.T. Realmuto RBI double in the top of the first, Boston responded when Kike Hernandez led off the bottom half with a solo homerun into the monster seats in left. The Sox took the lead in that first inning when Hunter Renfroe grounded into a fielders choice allowing Alex Verdugo to score. The Phillies came right back against Garrett Richards in the top of the second when Alec Bohm hit a two-run single to give the guests a 3-2 lead. Martinez put the hosts up for good in the bottom of the second taking a 2-2 pitch into the Boston bullpen in right field for a two out, three-run homer. They would roll after that adding on four more in the third on a leadoff solo homer by Rafeal Devers to center, RBI singles by Christian Vazquez and Verdugo, and an RBI ground-rule double by Martinez to make it 9-3. The Sox are now 55-34, and 29-17 at home.
Richards (5-5) survived the shaky start to pick up the win allowing three runs on seven hits with one walk and four strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Hernandez, Verdugo, Martinez, Renfroe, Vazquez, and Bobby Dalbec all had two hits each. Hernandez is third in the league with now five homeruns in that leadoff spot, and is also currently third in club history with homeruns to leadoff a first inning (Garciparra 7 in 1997, Betts 6 in 2016). Realmuto had two hits and two RBI for Philadelphia in the loss, while Vince Velasquez (3-4) took the pitching defeat allowing eight runs on six hits with four walks in 2.1 innings. Game two is scheduled for a 4:10 start on Saturday afternoon. LHP Martin Perez (7-4, 3.89 ERA) will take to the hill for the Sox to be opposed by LHP Matt Moore (0-1, 5.60) for the Phillies.
