The Boston Red Sox pieced together a 2.0 inning start by Austin Davis, 5.1 strong relief innings from Kutter Crawford, and used John Schreiber for the last 1.2 innings on Monday afternoon en route to a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.
After Boston avoided a three game interleague sweep at the hands of the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon, they used the strong pitching and timely hitting to take the opener of the three game series with Tampa Bay. In a scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth inning, Trevor Story hit a two-out solo homerun to right centerfield for the only offense that was needed. A two out RBI infield single by Rafael Devers in the fifth scored Christian Arroyo, who led the inning off with a double and it was 2-0. The Sox finished the scoring on the day in the eighth when Devers, JD Martinez, and Christian Vazquez all singled to load the bases with no outs. Alex Verdugo would bring in Devers on a fielders choice error, as pitcher Josh Fleming was attempting to pick up the soft grounder to come home with it but misplayed it allowing Devers to cross the plate. Franchy Cordero continued the inning with one out by driving in Martinez with a single. Schreiber finished off the victory by retiring the Rays in order in the ninth, as Tampa (43-37) was held to just two hits on the day.
Davis didn’t allow a hit in his 2.0 innings with one walk and two strikeouts. Crawford (2-2) got the win allowing two hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in the 5.1 frames of scoreless baseball, in what was one of his best pitching efforts for Boston. Schreiber picked up his third save, and on the season hasn’t allowed a run in 27 of 28 appearances. Devers, Story, and Arroyo had two hits each. Fleming (2-4) took the loss for Tampa Bay giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits in 5.0 innings in relief of their opener Jalen Beeks. Yandy Diaz and Wander Franco had the base hits. The Red Sox (45-35) continue this big two week American League East stretch in game two of the series on Tuesday night at 7:10 p.m. Nick Pivetta (8-5, 3.23 ERA) will be on the mound, to be opposed by Jeffrey Springs (3-2, 2.25) for the Rays. Boston is playing seven games against Tampa and seven with the New York Yankees in this 14 day stretch without a day off leading up to the All-Star break.
