Devers powers streaking Sox
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 of Minneapolis.
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 third-coldest start at Target Field, the record being 27 degrees on April 7,
2018.
“It was cold. I don’t feel my fingers the first inning,” said Boston starter
Martin Perez, who allowed the first two hitters of the game to score before settling in for five innings.
Devers hit a long home run in the ninth off Jorge Alcala. Devers started the season 0 for 13 but is 9 for 22 (.409) since – he has five home runs and 10 RBI in his last four games.
Mets 4, Phillies 3
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(8): Pete Alonso and Jonathan Villar each hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to give New York Mets a victory over Philadelphia in the first game of a doubleheader at Citi Field.
Dominic Smith socked a two-run homer for the
Mets early in the make up of Monday’s rainout. The games were scheduled for seven innings in keeping with a rules change introduced during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
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Athletics 7, Diamondbacks 5:
Jed Lowrie hit a tying, three-run homer in the seventh inning, Seth Brown had a solo shot in the next frame and Oakland rallied from a five-run deficit at Arizona.
The Diamondbacks appeared to be cruising to their third win in four games. Carson Kelly hit a three-run homer in the second inning and Arizona scored two more in the third. Zac Gallen struck out eight in his season debut and gave up one run in four innings, on Stephen Piscotty's solo homer.
Mariners 4, Orioles
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3 (8): Kyle Seager hit an RBI double in the eighth and the Seattle Mariners won their third extrainning game in as many tries this season, beatinghost Baltimore in the first game of a doubleheader.
Seager, who has reached base in nine of his last 10 plate appearances, laced a one-out double to center off Tanner Scott (0-1). That scored Mitch Haniger, who opened the extra frame as the automatic runner on second base.
The Orioles were down to their last out when
Ryan Mountcastle came up with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Mountcastle doubled and
DJ Stewart drove him in with a single as Baltimorecompleted a rally from an early 3-0 deficit.
Orioles 7, Mariners
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6: Ramon Urias hit a game-ending single with two outs in the seventh inning and Baltimore defeated miscue-prone Seattle in the nightcap to earn a doubleheader split.
ELSEWHERE
Indians: First baseman ● Yu Chang shared some racist tweets he received after making a costly error in Monday night’s game in Chicago. Chang, who is Taiwanese, posted some of the antiAsian tweets on his Twitter account while asking for tolerance. One of the messages referred to the shape of his eyes and another referred to the coronavirus.
“Exercise your freedom of speech in a right way, I accept all comments, positive or negative but DEFINITELY NOT RACIST ONES,” Chang wrote. “Thank you all and love you all.”
He included the hashtag StopAsianHate.
Cubs: With the team
● facing a COVID-19 scare, pitcher Kyle Hendricks was scratched from his scheduled start after the right-hander indicated he wasn’t feeling well. The Cubs said the move was made from “an abundance of caution.” Four Cubs were added to the COVID-19 injured list over the last two days.