The Boston Red Sox added another series win to their tally Sunday with a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox scored three runs on Mets ace Jacob deGrom in the third inning, but after Chris Sale departed after three frames, the Boston bullpen gave up a trio of runs to allow New York to tie the score. The Sox took the lead for good in the eighth inning when Andrew Benintendi hit a sacrifice fly to put Boston up 4-3.
Steven Wright came on the for the save in the ninth inning.
Sox outfielder Mookie Betts left in the sixth inning with left side soreness, but manager Alex Cora noted after the game that the star outfielder is expected star Tuesday.
Boston improved to 103-47 with the victory, while New York fell to 69-80.
Here’s how it all went down.
GAME IN A WORD
Encouraging.
Sale, who has dealt with shoulder inflammation that’s put him on the disabled list twice in the last few months, got through three innings without any issues.
ON THE BUMP
— Sale got off to a nice start, setting down the Mets in order on just 10 pitches. He went back out for the second inning and gave up a single but also tallied his first strikeout in another scoreless frame. Sale’s final inning of work came in the third when he threw a 1-2-3 frame. The southpaw allowed one hit, no walks and struck out one over three innings. He threw 42 pitches.
— Hector Velazquez came out of the bullpen to pitch the fourth inning. He gave up one hit but kept the Mets off the scoreboard. It was his only inning of work.
— Drew Pomeranz came in to pitch the fifth inning and set down the Mets in order. He gave up a leadoff single in the sixth inning, and then a double by Amed Rosario that hit high off the Green Monster put men on second and third with no outs. The Mets got on the board with a sacrifice fly, and Rosario later scored on a double by Michael Conforto. Pomeranz was allowed to finish the inning and kept the Sox up 3-2.
— Heath Hembree came in for the seventh inning but failed to record a single out. He allowed a leadoff walk and then hit a batter. Cora had seen enough after that and decided to bring in Joe Kelly. Kelly got two outs, but he gave up a single up the middle to Rosario, which brought in the tying run. The throw home hit the Mets runner who scored, and that allowed New York to have runners on the corners with two outs. But the visitors didn’t get any more runs, and the score was tied at three entering the bottom of the seventh.
— Brandon Workman came in to pitch the eighth inning and allowed a leadoff walk to Wilmer Flores, then picked him off soon after. He caught Flores leaning too far toward second base and the Mets infielder got caught in a rundown. Workman got the next two outs to complete a scoreless inning.
— Wright gave up a walk but pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Red Sox got going in the third inning. Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez both singled, and Betts got the Sox on the board with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Devers. Brock Holt increased Boston’s lead to 2-0 with a two-run homer off deGrom.
— Steve Pearce doubled off the Green Monster with two outs in the sixth inning, but the Sox weren’t able to bring him home.
— Jackie Bradley Jr. singled to right field and then stole second base in the seventh inning, but that’s as far as he would get.
— Tzu-Wei Lin doubled to left field to lead off the eighth inning, and he later came around to score on a sac fly by Andrew Benintendi to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.
— Betts, Benintendi, Mitch Moreland and Ian Kinsler all went hitless.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Holt can do it all.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox travel to New York to take on the Yankees for a three-game series beginning Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. ET. Nathan Eovaldi is set to get the ball for Boston opposite J.A. Happ.
