Red Sox continue surge in AL East
RED SOX 5, RAYS 4
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s taken nearly four months, but the Boston Red Sox are back in second place in the American League East.
Christian Vazquez hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning, Marcus Walden bailed the defending World Series champions out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, and the Red Sox held off the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Tuesday night to climb into second for the first time since the second day of the season.
The Red Sox, who have recovered from a 3-8 start, improved to a season-high 10 games over .500 at 56-46, moving one percentage point ahead of the Rays (57-47), who have lost seven of eight.
“It seems like it’s been an eternity to get to 10, but we know where we’re at now,” Manager Alex Cora said.
“It seemed early in the season that those guys were way ahead of us,” Cora added. “It’s something that we learned, that we can catch up with people.”
The Red Sox had not been in second place since they were 1-1 after play on March 29, tied with Tampa Bay and Toronto. They are two games behind Oakland for the second AL wild-card berth.
“We’ve still got some work to do,” said pitcher Chris Sale, who has dropped his ERA from 4.24 to 4.00 in his last two starts. “I don’t think you exhale yet. You just keep your foot on the gas.”
With the score 2-2, Vazquez hit his second career pinch-home run, a drive into the left-field seats off Colin Poche (2-4).
Boston boosted the lead to 5-2 in the eighth when Andrew Benintendi (Arkansas Razorbacks) hit an RBI groundout and Jackie Bradley Jr. was hit by a pitch from Adam Kolarek with the bases loaded, forcing in a run.
Ji-Man Choi’s had a run-scoring single off Brandon Workman in the ninth. Walden entered with the bases loaded and two outs, walked Tommy Pham on four pitches, then retired Austin Meadows on a game-ending groundout.
Tampa Bay Manager Kevin Cash didn’t take solace in his team hanging in the game until the final out.
“If you asked me that two weeks ago, I probably would have been more encouraged,” Cash said. “We need to win. So, get the big hit, make the big pitch. We’re just not doing it right now. So no, there’s not too much encouragement right there.”
Tampa Bay led the AL East from after play on March 30 through mid-May. After a 14-4 start, they are 4343 since April 18 and 30-35 against teams currently .500 or better.
“It’s one of those things where it seems like every game there’s something that’s not going our way. … Baseball can be that way. You go through stretches where things just don’t go your way,” Poche said. “I think the guys we have on this team, we’ve got some good leaders and I think we’re going to pull out of this.”
Boston is a big league-best 32-21 on the road, including 5-0 at Tropicana Field, but 1-5 against Tampa Bay at Fenway Park this season.
Sale (5-9) allowed two runs on Travis d’Arnaud’s third-inning home run and limited the Rays to three other hits while throwing a season-high 116 pitches and striking out 10 over six innings.
Rays starter Yonny Chirinos settled after giving up a pair of two-out runs in the first inning — one on a wild pitch allowing Rafael Devers to score from third base and the other on Benintendi’s RBI single.
BLUE JAYS 2, INDIANS 1 (10) Justin Smoak tied the game with a home run in the ninth inning and knocked in the winning run with a twoout single in the 10th as Toronto beat Cleveland. Smoak got the winning hit off lefty Tyler Olson (1-1), scoring Eric Sogard.
ATHLETICS 4, ASTROS 3 (11) Matt Olson hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning and Ramon Laureano added a ground-rule RBI double with one out in the 11th, giving Oakland a victory over Houston.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
METS 5, PADRES 2 Robinson Cano hit three home runs for the first time in his career, leading New York over San Diego. Cano, 36, drove in all five runs and went 4 for 4.
NATIONALS 11, ROCKIES 1 Trea Turner hit for his second career cycle, Stephen Strasburg earned his major league-leading 13th victory and Washington routed Colorado. Turner led off the first with a home run, singled in the second and tripled in the fifth. After grounding into a double play in the sixth, he doubled home a run during
Washington’s eight-run seventh.
CARDINALS 4, PIRATES 3 Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run for the second consecutive night, Jose Martínez added his 10th home run and Dakota Hudson rebounded from a shaky start to lead St. Louis past Pittsburgh.
REDS 14, BREWERS 6 Eugenio Suarez hit his third two-run home run in two games and Cincinnati battered Zach Davies for seven runs in a rout of Milwaukee.
INTERLEAGUE
ROYALS 5, BRAVES 4 Lucas Duda delivered Kansas City’s first pinch-hit home run of the season to break a tie in the eighth inning, and the Royals beat NL East-leading Atlanta. Alex Gordon also had a home run for the Royals and drove in two runs. Starters Dallas Keuchel (Arkansas Razorbacks) of Atlanta and Danny Duffy of Kansas City went six strong innings with double-digit strikeouts but didn’t factor in the decision
MARLINS 5, WHITE SOX 1 Caleb Smith retired his first 17 batters and cruised through seven innings of two-hit ball, and Miami beat Chicago.
PHILLIES 3, TIGERS 2 (15) Scott Kingery tripled to lead off the 15th inning and scored on a single by Rhys Hoskins as Philadelphia outlasted Detroit. Kingery, who had struck out four times, hit a drive to deep right off Daniel Stumpf (1-1) to start the inning. Hoskins followed with a clean single to right.