After dropping the opener of a three game interleague series on Saturday afternoon that was suspended by rain on Friday night, the Boston Red Sox bounced back with five homeruns including two by Triston Casas to beat the New York Mets 8-6 at Fenway Park on Saturday night.
Jarren Duran led off and got things started for Boston in the bottom of the first inning with a solo homerun around the Pesky Pole in rightfield off New York starter Max Scherzer. Casas hit his first longball of the night in the second to right centerfield, a solo shot to make it 2-0. The Mets took their only lead in the fourth on a two-run single by Jeff McNeil, and then a throwing error on the same play by Red Sox catcher Jorge Alfaro that went into left center allowed McNeil to come all the way around to score for a 3-2 advantage. Yu Chang made sure that lead didn’t last for long as he led off the fifth for Boston (52-47) and tied it up with a solo homerun into the monster seats. In the sixth with one out, Casas stepped up with a man on and took Scherzer deep again this time into the centerfield bleachers to give his team the lead for good. It was the fourth homerun allowed on the evening for Scherzer, and Casas became the first rookie ever to hit two or more homeruns in the same game off the New York righthander. James Paxton had a solid outing on the hill firing 6.0 innings allowing two earned runs, a walk, and had seven strikeouts. The Sox added three more runs in the seventh off the Mets bullpen on a RBI single by Masataka Yoshida, and a two-run homer from Justin Turner just sneaking into the first row of the monster that turned out to be the game winner. New York made it interesting in the ninth, forcing closer Kenley Jansen to come out of the bullpen. After allowing an RBI single to Brett Baty that was charged to Justin Garza, Jansen was able to retire Daniel Vogelbach on a flyout to Yoshida in left in foul territory to pick up the save.
Paxton (6-2) picked up the win, as he also bounced back after a rough outing against the Chicago Cubs last time out. Jansen got his 21st save. Yoshida had three hits and Casas had two to lead the offense. Scherzer (8-4) took the loss for New York giving up five runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work. Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos had two hits a piece, as the their record falls to 46-52. The rubber game of the series is the Sunday Night Baseball matchup of the week at 7:10 p.m. It will be a bullpen game for the Red Sox with lefthander Brennan Bernardino scheduled to be the opener, while LHP Chris Murphy is expected to be the bulk reliever. Righthander Carlos Carrasco (3-3, 5.35 ERA) will take the ball for the Mets.
Story by Chris Lessner
