Christian Vazquez hit a go ahead two run homerun in the fourth inning Wednesday afternoon, and Nathan Eovaldi was solid once again on the mound as the Boston Red Sox swept the three game series over the defending American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays with a 9-2 win at Fenway Park.
Yoshi Tsutsugo got Tampa off to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third with an RBI single. It was all Boston after that. Xander Bogaerts tied it with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and then Vazquez hit the game winning two run homer well over the monster in left, the second long homerun in as many games to make it 3-1 Sox. JD Martinez padded the lead in a six run fifth inning with a two run double. Vazquez hit an RBI single, and Hunter Renfroe reached on a throwing error by shortstop Willy Adames that allowed two more runs to come across. Christian Arroyo finished off the big inning by looping an RBI double just over the head of the first baseman down the right field line scoring Renfroe to make it 9-1. Mike Brosseau had an RBI single for Tampa Bay (2-4) in the top of the ninth to finish the scoring.
Eovaldi (1-1) allowed one run on three hits with three walks and seven strikeouts in 7.0 innings to earn his first win of 2021. He has only allowed two earned runs with 11 strikeouts in 12.1 innings with a 1.46 earned run average over his first two starts. Bogaerts had three hits, while Enrique Hernandez, Bobby Dalbec, and Vazquez had two each. Ryan Yarborough (0-1) gave up six runs on nine hits in 5.0 innings on the hill in the loss for Tampa. The Rays were held to five hits on the day. The Red Sox scored 26 runs over the three game series, after only scoring five in their three losses to start the season against the Orioles. Boston (3-3) begins a seven game roadtrip starting with a three game series in Baltimore Thursday afternoon at 3:05. Eduardo Rodriguez will be back and will get the nod on the mound for the Sox.
The Boston Red Sox played host to the Tampa Bay Rays in the final game of a three game series at Fenway Park in Boston on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Boston swept the series with a 9-2 win. Photos courtesy of Marc Calnan.
