After a dismal end to their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox bounced back Monday night with a 10-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Boston’s bat found all corners of Fenway Park, racking up 13 hits in Game 1 against Toronto. Rick Porcello was handed the win, while Toronto’s Trent Thornton took the loss.
The Sox climb to 51-43 with the win, while the Jays fall to 35-60 with the loss.
Here’s how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Nerve-wracking
Boston had a hefty lead going into the eighth, but the bullpen made it interesting once again.
ON THE BUMP
— Despite giving up at least five runs in each of his previous three outings, Porcello put together a decent performance Monday for his seventh win of the season.
His troubles began in the second after Billy McKinney launched a two-run homer into the Red Sox bullpen, cutting Boston’s five-run lead to three. Porcello continued to struggle in the third, allowing Randal Grichuk and Justin Smoak to drive in the Jays’ third and fourth runs of the game in back-to-back at-bats.
The righty settled down for a bit after that, allowing just two hits through the next three innings. Porcello gave up four earned runs on eight hits through six innings of work.
— Marcus Walden took over for a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
— Ryan Braiser came out of the ‘pen for the eighth, but wouldn’t escape unscathed. After allowing Smoak to hit a ground-rule double over Mookie Betts’ head in right field, a Danny Jansen single drove in the Jays’ fifth run of the game. Toronto would tack on another run on a Brandon Drury sacrifice fly to make it 10-6.
An Eric Sogard bunt single was the final straw for Braiser, who was yanked from the game with two outs in the inning.
— The Sox looked to Matt Barnes to stop the bleeding, but simply couldn’t do so. The righty allowed Freddy Galvis to slice a single into center field that drove in McKinney and Sogard from third and second, respectively. He would retire the next batter he faced, but the damage was done.
— Brandon Workman got the ball for the ninth and retired the side in order.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Boston opened the scoring in dramatic fashion in the first.
It all started with a bases-loaded single by Andrew Benintendi, driving in Betts for the first run of the game. Then it was Michael Chavis, who crushed his first career grand slam into the Green Monster to make it 5-0 Boston early.
— After their five-run lead was cut to one, the Red Sox pulled away again with a five-run third inning.
Rafael Devers would take advantage of another bases-loaded situation with a two-run single to make it 7-4 Boston. Xander Bogaerts drove home the Sox’s eighth run of the game on a single to center, scoring Betts from third. Benintendi made it 10-4 Boston just two batters later with a two-run double, driving in Devers and Bogaerts.
— Betts, Devers, Bogaerts, Benintendi, and Brock Holt all had multi-hit games for Boston.
— J.D. Martinez and Sandy Leon were the only batters without a hit in the series opener.
— Boston left a whopping nine batters on base.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Dear diary…
UP NEXT
The Red Sox’s four-game series against the Blue Jays continues Tuesday, with Andrew Cashner slated to take the mound for his Red Sox debut. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET.
