Red Sox strike early, rally late, top Angels
Martinez powers Boston back atop East
BOSTON — J.D. Martinez and the Boston Red Sox keep piling up big offensive numbers — not to mention wins — against the Los Angeles Angels.
Martinez hit his major league-leading 25th home run, Rafael Devers delivered a tiebreaking RBI double, and the Red Sox beat the skidding Angels 9-6 on Wednesday after squandering a six-run lead.
The homer by Martinez capped a six-run second for the Red Sox, who won for the fifth time in six games and moved back atop the American League East, a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees.
Eduardo Nunez and Sandy Leon also went deep in the second for Boston, which improved to 5-0 against the Angels this season and has outscored them 45-10 with 18 homers and a .363 batting average.
It’s the most homers by any club in a season series of six games or fewer.
“There’s no one explanation,” Martinez said. “Maybe we just match up well against them.”
Martin Maldonado hit a three-run homer and Ian Kinsler a solo shot for the Angels, who lost their fifth straight and 12th in 16 games.
Los Angeles reliever Jake Jewell was carted off the field with what appeared to be a gruesome injury to his right ankle after covering the plate on a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth.
“He’s getting evaluated, I think, at Massachusetts General,” manager Mike Scioscia said.
Angels star Mike Trout went 1-for-4 as a sprained right index finger kept him as the designated hitter for the eighth consecutive game.
Devers doubled off reliever Jose Alvarez (3-3) in the seventh, putting Boston up 7-6, and scored on Leon’s single in a game that took four hours.
Matt Barnes (2-2) worked a scoreless inning. Craig Kimbrel got four outs for his 23rd save, his first of more than three outs this season.
The Angels trailed 6-0 before they charged back with a run in the fifth on Kinsler’s homer, three in the sixth on Maldonado’s shot and two in the seventh. Andrelton Simmons’ RBI double off reliever Joe Kelly tied it.
Martinez’s shot went over the Green Monster in left-center, raising his big league-best RBI total to 64. In his first season with Boston, the slugger has the most home runs in Red Sox history before the end of June.