On a misty Tuesday night at Fenway Park, the Red Sox secured a series victory over the Rays in their penultimate game of the season. Boston defeated Tampa Bay, 6-0, in a rain-shortened five innings to improve to 77-84 on the year.
With old friend Jeffrey Springs on the mound for the Rays, the Sox jumped out to an early lead in the second inning. Alex Verdugo drew a leadoff walk off the left-hander and moved up to second base on a two-out single from Eric Hosmer.
Christian Arroyo followed that sequence by taking the first pitch he saw from Springs and lifting a 169-foot single to shallow right field to drive in Verdugo for the first run of the night.
Fast forward to the fifth, with Springs already out of the game, and the Sox struck again off Colin Poche. Arroyo led off with a single and immediately moved up to third on a line-drive double from Connor Wong. As the lineup turned back over, Rafael Devers drew a one-out walk to bring Xander Bogaerts to the plate with the bases loaded.
Bogaerts came through by unloading on a hanging curveball from Poche and depositing it 421 feet over the Green Monster for his 15th home run of the season. The grand slam was the seventh from a Boston hitter this year and the seventh of Bogaerts’ career. It had an exit velocity of 110.6 mph and gave the Red Sox a 5-0 lead, though they were not done there.
After Poche left the game with an apparent injury, Brooks Raley came on for the Rays and walked two of the first three batters he faced. He then got Hosmer to hit a grounder towards Isaac Paredes at first base. Paredes fielded the ball cleanly, but Raley could not corral his underhanded toss as he attempted to cover the bag.
As a result of Raley’s misses catch error, J.D. Martinez was able to score all the way from second to make it a 6-0 contest in favor of the Sox. Moments after Martinez scored, the grounds crew took the field with the tarpaulin in tow and this game entered a delay at around 8:58 p.m. eastern time. Fifty-two minutes later, it was officially called.
Although the fifth inning was not played in full, the Red Sox were still credited with a 6-0 win since they were ahead in the bottom of the fifth. Nathan Eovaldi, meanwhile, was credited with a complete game shutout.
Making his final start of the season and perhaps his last start in a Red Sox uniform, Eovaldi allowed just two hits on two walks to go along with four strikeouts over five scoreless innings of work.
The veteran right-hander took a no-hitter into the third before giving up a two-out single to Jose Siri. He then stranded Siri by fanning Yandy Diaz on five pitches.
In the fourth, Eovaldi issued back-to-back walks to Wander Franco and Ji-Man Choi to lead off the inning. Franco moved up to third on an Isaac Paredes flyout, but Eovaldi escaped the jam by getting Jonathan Aranda to ground into an inning-ending 6-3 double play that was started by Bogaerts.
From there, Eovaldi worked his way around a two-out double from Taylor Walls in the fifth to ultimately notch his sixth winning decision of the season. The 32-year-old hurler finished with 64 pitches (40 strikes) while lowering his final ERA to 3.87.
Next up: Pivetta vs. Fleming in Game No. 162
The Red Sox will look to end the regular season by completing a three-game sweep over the Rays on Wednesday afternoon. Right-hander Nick Pivetta will get the start for Boston while left-hander Josh Fleming will do the same for Tampa Bay.
First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. eastern time on NESN.
(Picture of Xander Bogaerts: Winslow Townson/Getty Images)
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