Red Sox top Twins, win 7th game in a row

MINNEAPOLIS — Rafael Devers homered for the fourth straight game and the streaking Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on a snowy Tuesday afternoon in a series opener moved back following the fatal police shooting of a Black man in a nearby suburb.

Hunter Renfroe hit a solo homer and Bobby Dalbec added a pair of RBI doubles as Boston won its seventh in a row after losing its first three games of the season.

“I felt good today. I felt good in my early work the last two days, even though we didn’t play yesterday,“Dalbec said. “Obviously, it’s pretty cold and tough to get the hands going. But you kind of got to just push through it and find a way to stay warm.”

Monday’s game was postponed due to safety and sensitivity concerns in the Twin Cities after the police shooting a day earlier of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. The Twins held a moment of silence for Wright prior to Tuesday’s game.

Snow flurries fell for most of the game and it was 33 degrees for the first pitch. That made for the thirdcoldest start at Target Field, the record being 27 degrees on April 7, 2018.

BLUE JAYS 7, YANKEES 3

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Hyun Jin Ryu cruised into the seventh inning, Marcus Semien and Rowdy Tellez homered, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees.

Ryu (1-1) allowed only an unearned run over 6 2⁄3 innings, striking out seven and limiting the Yankees to four hits and a walk. The Blue Jays ace retired 12 in a row after DJ LeMahieu had a leadoff infield single in the first.

Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks was back in the lineup and went 3 for 4 after getting permission from manager Aaron Boone to sit out Monday’s game following the police shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, in Minnesota.

METS 4, PHILLIES 3 (GAME 1)

NEW YORK — Pete Alonso and Jonathan Villar each hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to give the New York Mets a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of their doubleheader.

Dominic Smith socked an early two-run homer for the Mets, who took the opener of a four-game series between NL East rivals in extra innings. Both games of the single-admission twinbill, booked to make up Monday night’s rainout at Citi Field, were scheduled for seven innings in keeping with a rules change introduced during the pandemic shortened 2020 season.

With the Mets down a run, Alonso opened the bottom of the eighth with a sharp single off Hector

Neris (0-1) that scored placement runner Francisco Lindor from second. It was New York’s first hit since the second inning.