The Boston Red Sox had their best offensive game of the season and also got 7.0 strong innings from Nathan Eovaldi on the mound on Wednesday night, pulverizing the Tampa Bay Rays 20-8 at Fenway Park.
Boston (66-50) hammered starting pitcher Josh Fleming to the tune of 10 earned runs over just 3.1 innings, tallying a total of 19 hits in the game that included seven doubles, two triples, and also a three-run eighth inning homerun by Xander Bogaerts off Rays position player Francisco Mejia. The Sox got three runs in the first, two in the second, five in the fourth, and four in the fifth to make it 14-0 before really adding on with six more off Mejia in the eighth. JD Martinez had four hits, with Hunter Renfroe and Kike Hernandez adding three a piece. Renfroe had four RBI. Marwin Gonzalez, Bobby Dalbec, and Bogaerts had two hits a piece. Dalbec had a game high five RBI and Bogaerts had four. The two and three hitters in Renfroe and Bogaerts combined for five hits, eight RBI, and six runs scored. Tampa Bay (69-45) was really held in check most of the night, until the ninth when they scored seven times off reliever Phillips Valdez that included a grand slam by Brett Phillips and a solo homerun by Mike Zunino. No Rays batter had more than one hit on the night.
Eovaldi (10-7) allowed one run on three hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts to earn the win. Fleming (9-6) gave up 11 hits and six walks with those 10 earned runs in his short outing to take the loss. The rubber game of the three game series is Thursday afternoon at 4:10 p.m. RHP Tanner Houck (0-2, 2.45 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound for Boston against RHP Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 4.15) for Tampa Bay.
