After a rough start to the 2019 season, the Boston Red Sox finally are starting to play up to expectations. And they continued that trend with a 12-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Monday.
Boston had 13 hits in the game, hitting three balls out of the park.
Manager Alex Cora lauded the Sox for the marked improvements they’ve made to their offense in such a short amount of time.
“I’ve been feeling all along that offensively we’re getting close,” Cora said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. Obviously when Jackie (Bradley Jr.) starts swinging it, then we become that dangerous. Christian (Vazquez) has done an outstanding job at the bottom of the lineup. Sandy, his at-bats have been better than last year. … So it was a good offensive game for us.”
The Sox will try and take the second match of their three-game set against the Indians on Tuesday, with David Price set to take the mound for Boston. First pitch is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET.
Here are some more notes from Monday’s Indians-Red Sox game:
— Five Boston batters had multi-hit games: Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Micahel Chavis and Bradley Jr.
— In fact, Betts had himself one heck of a Memorial Day, going 2-for-5 and earning his 26th RBI of the season.
He also made this spectacular catch in the fifth inning.
— Martinez also had an impressive outing, hitting two solo home runs.
— Brock Holt had an impressive first game back with the Sox since going on the injured list back in early April. Holt was 1-for-4, knocking in one run and scoring two others.
— The Indians had two sacrifice bunts early in the game, a rarity this day in age.
