After a slow offensive output and losing two out of three games over the weekend at Yankee Stadium, the Boston Red Sox exploded in a big way Monday night. Jarren Duran clubbed his first major league homerun and Kike Hernandez hit two, as they hit a total of six long balls and routed the Toronto Blue Jays 13-4 at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, New York.
Kike Hernandez led off the game with a double, and then Duran hit a line drive two-run homer to left field that immediately made it 2-0. Later in the first, Hunter Renfoe unloaded the bases with a grand slam that knocked Toronto starter Ross Stripling out of the game. Hernandez finished off the big eight run inning with a 434 foot two-run homerun to left. Three more in the second on a Rafael Devers line drive solo homerun to right center, and a two-run double by Danny Santana made it 11-0. Santana then hit a solo shot of his own in the fourth. The Blue Jays made a run at getting back into the game in the bottom half of the fourth, scoring four times including a solo homer from Cavan Biggio. They still had the bases loaded with two outs, but Boston starter Nick Pivetta got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to fly out ending any further damage. Hernandez later added his second homer of the game, a solo bomb down the left field line in the sixth inning.
Pivetta (8-4) picked up the pitching win allowing four runs on 11 hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 6.2 innings. Hernandez had three hits, three RBI, and scored three times for Boston (57-38). JD Martinez reached base all five times with four hits and a walk. Santana had two hits and three RBI, and Kevin Plawecki also added a pair of hits. Stripling (3-6) only got through 1/3 of an inning in taking the loss for Toronto (48-43), allowing six runs on four hits. George Springer had three hits, while Bo Bichette and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had two a piece. Garrett Richards (5-5, 4.91 ERA) takes the ball in game two for the Sox Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m., while the Jays haven’t yet announced a starter.
