Hot Red Sox win home opener

Thirteen innings on the road. Twelve at home. Last year, this year - it doesn’t matter how long it takes for the Boston Red Sox. They just keep winning in extra innings.

Hanley Ramirez blooped a bases-loaded fly ball over the drawn-in outfield in right to break a 12th-inning tie and the Red Sox, who rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth, beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Thursday for their sixth straight victory.

It was the ninth straight Red Sox win in an extra-inning game, dating to 2017, when they were 15-3 in extras. They beat the Miami Marlins in 13 innings on Tuesday night before returning home for the Fenway opener.

“It seems like it’s not a good game unless we play extra innings,” said Mookie Betts, whose single was the first of four hits in the ninth after Boston had just three in the first eight innings. Tampa Bay beat Boston in the season opener last week.

The Rays haven’t won - and the Red Sox haven’t lost - since. The teams have met five times already this season, with all four Boston victories by one run.

“We’ve played fairly even by run-scoring, I guess,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But unfortunately they’ve got us four times and we only got them once.”

Bobby Poyner (1-0) pitched two innings, striking out three for his first major league win. Andrew Kittredge (0-2) took the loss, throwing a pair of scoreless innings before running into trouble in the 12th.