Sox celebrate 4th
Bats set off fireworks
Mookie Betts’ sky-high, Carlton Fisk-like fly ball down the left field line in the second inning was called foul. An umpire-initiated video review determined the call should stand and instead of the Red Sox being within one run of the Texas Rangers in yesterday’s series opener at Fenway Park, the home team remained down by three after Betts flied out and Dustin Pedroia grounded out to conclude the inning.
With the current state of the Sox offense, however, all the close call did was postpone the eruption.
Betts later wound up hitting one of four home runs and seven starters collected at least two hits as the Red Sox set season highs with nine doubles and 21 hits in a 12-5 victory.
The Sox, who lead all of baseball in runs scored and doubles, fell behind the American Leagueleading Rangers, 4-0, in the first inning, but they weren’t deterred by the deficit.
“We were putting pressure on them the whole game,” Betts said. “That’s how you just wear down a pitcher and start getting some hits. I mean we were having some long at-bats and hitting them hard and keeping him in the stretch. I thought that’s how we won today.”
Four Sox players had at least three hits, but only one had four. Sandy Leon continued his remarkable run with a 4-for-5 that included three doubles. Leon, who had 39 hits in 75 career games prior to this season, has 20 in 15 games this year and is batting .500.
The numbers earned Leon an extended stay, as fellow catcher Christian Vazquez was optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket with the return of Ryan Hanigan from the disabled list.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Brock Holt said of Leon. “We laugh every time he gets a hit. We should be laughing every time he gets out because he hasn’t got out very much. He’s been great for us and been a huge part of what we’ve been doing.”
Leon caught Rick Porcello (102) for the first time this season. The start got off to an inauspicious beginning, as the Rangers scored four times after there were two outs. Adrian Beltre and Jurickson Profar had a RBI single each and Rougned Odor drove in two runs with another single.
Porcello allowed at least one hit in each of his six innings and allowed a season-high total of 12 hits, but kept Texas at bay after the first. The Sox turned one double play on the infield and Holt threw out Shin-Soo Choo trying to score on a single to left field to end the fourth inning. Porcello is 7-0 at Fenway. “He had three opportunities for shutdown innings and converted each one,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “And that’s such a huge shift to maintain momentum on our side.”
Xander Bogaerts (3-for-6) started the go-head rally with a single in the third inning. He scored on a David Ortiz double, and Hanley Ramirez’ double scored Ortiz to trim the deficit to 4-3. Holt put the Sox ahead with a two-run homer off Rangers starter Nick Martinez (1-2) on an 0-2 pitch, with the ball hopping into the home bullpen off the top of the wall.
From there, the lead grew to 9-4 lead before Texas scored its last run in the eighth on Odor’s solo shot off Koji Uehara.
Pedroia (3-for-6, two RBI), Travis Shaw (3-for-5, two RBI) and Betts (2-for-5, two RBI) also homered for the Sox.
And the home run Betts just missed was a distant memory.