Trevor Story had a game winning three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning on Sunday afternoon, as the Boston Red Sox finished off a four game sweep of the Texas Rangers with a 5-2 win at Fenway Park.
Texas (58-75) jumped on top 2-0 in the top of the first on a ground rule RBI double by Adolis Garcia and an RBI groundout by Jonah Heim. Boston came right back in their first at bat as Tommy Pham and Alex Verdugo led off with singles and Xander Bogaerts nailed an RBI double. With one out, Story took an 0-1 pitch deep over the green monster in left for a three-run shot his 16th homerun of the season and a 4-2 lead. Bogaerts added another RBI with a single in the second that ended the scoring on the day. Bogaerts now has multiple hits in eight straight games, the longest streak since Kevin Youkilis tied the club record with nine in 2007. The Red Sox (67-68) have won five games in a row.
Bogaerts and Story had three hits each, while Verdugo and Rob Refsnyder had two in the win. Josh Winckowski started on the mound and got a no-decision allowing two runs on three hits in 4.0 innings. Kaleb Ort (1-1) got the victory in relief, while John Schreiber worked a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts for his seventh save. The game also featured the MLB debut of Red Sox first base prospect Triston Casas, who went 1-4 with a single. Casas is expected to be up with the big club the remainder of the regular season. Dane Dunning (3-8) took the pitching loss for Texas giving up five runs on eight hits in 4.0 innings. Leody Taveras had two hits. The Rangers have now lost eight straight. Boston begins a three game series at Tampa Bay with the Rays on Monday at 4:10 p.m. Michael Wacha (10-1, 2.56 ERA) gets the ball on the hill in the opener, to be opposed by Luis Patino (1-1, 3.95) for Tampa. The Sox are still 7.5 games out of a wildcard playoff spot with 27 games left to play.
