At the Amway Center in Orlando, Kemba Walker scored a game high 32 points and the Boston Celtics led from start to finish in a 132-96 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.
Boston (35-31) opened the game on a 13-2 run and never looked back in cruising to the road victory. Walker hit 6-9 from the three-point arc and also added three rebounds and four assists. Jayson Tatum filled up the stat sheet with 27 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks. Payton Pritchard also got into double figures with 14 points. The C’s played without Jaylen Brown but shot 53% from the floor and 47% from the three-point line. Dwayne Bacon and Moritz Wagner had 20 points a piece for Orlando (21-45). Boston is in Chicago to play the Bulls on Friday night.
At Fenway Park, Jeimer Candelario hit a game winning homerun in the 10th inning as the Detroit Tigers ended a six game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Boston (18-13) took the early lead in the bottom of the second on a Christian Arroyo RBI groundout. Jacoby Jones tied it 1-1 for Detroit with an RBI single in the fourth, then took a 3-1 lead when he hit a two-run single off the monster in left in the sixth inning. The Red Sox would tie it up on a two out, two-run homerun by JD Martinez into the Boston bullpen in the seventh inning. It was the 10th homerun of the season for Martinez. The hosts had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but a sinking line drive to left center by Xander Bogaerts was caught by the Tigers Robbie Grossman to send the game to extra innings. Jonathan Schoop began the top of the 10th with a single to right, and Candelario followed by hitting one deep into the seats down the right field line for the game winning three-run homer. Marwin Gonzalez singled in Bogaerts in the bottom half and Boston would end up putting the winning runs on base with one out, but Michael Fulmer came out of the visitors bullpen and retired Bobby Dalbec on a lineout and struckout Enrique Hernandez to end it. Detroit is now 9-22 on the season.
Gonzalez had two hits for Boston, and Garrett Whitlock (0-1) was tagged with the pitching loss giving up the homerun to Candelario in the 10th. Josh Taylor, Hirokazu Sawumara, Adam Ottavino, and Matt Barnes did combine for 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball in relief of starter Martin Perez. Candelario had three hits, and Jones, Niko Goodrum, and Grayson Grenier had two a piece for Detroit. Gregory Soto (2-1) picked up the win in relief, while Fulmer who is a starter got the save. The teams will play the rubber game of the three game series on Thursday afternoon at 1:10, with Nathan Eovaldi taking to the mound for the Sox to be opposed by the Tigers Spencer Turnbull.
