Field Level Media
Jul 28, 2018
J.D. Martinez hit his major-league-leading 32nd home run of the season and Eduardo Nunez tripled, doubled and drove in two runs to lead a 14-hit attack as the host Boston Red Sox cruised to a 10-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night at Fenway Park.
Jackie Bradley Jr. had a two-run triple, and five Red Sox batters each had two hits for Boston, which improved to 12-2 in its last 14 games at Fenway Park and 36-14 at home overall this season.
Rick Porcello (13-4) picked up the victory despite giving up four runs on five hits in just 5 2/3 innings. Heath Hembree, Tyler Thornburg and Joe Kelly combined to blank the Twins on two hits over the final 3 1/3 innings.
Logan Morrison homered, Jorge Polanco hit a two-run triple and Joe Mauer had two hits and scored a run for Minnesota, which lost its second straight game. Jake Odorizzi (4-7), who gave up five runs on nine hits in five innings, took the loss.
The Red Sox bunched three consecutive singles together to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning, with Mitch Moreland, playing for the first time since Tuesday because of a sore left knee, driving in Andrew Benintendi with the third straight single.
Morrison tied it in the second with his 13th homer of the season that traveled an estimated 434 feet down the right field line.
The Twins took a 4-1 lead in the third with three two-out runs. Polanco hit a two-run standup triple to center to drive in Jake Cave and Mauer, who had both singled. Brian Dozier then followed with a single to center to drive in Polanco.
The Red Sox came back to tie it in the bottom half of the inning on Bradley's two-run triple off the fence in center that drove in Rafael Devers, who reached on a ground-rule double, and Nunez, who had walked. Mookie Betts then drove in Bradley with a double down the left field line.
Martinez then gave Boston a 5-4 lead with a towering leadoff homer in the fifth over the Green Monster in left. Benintendi made it 6-4 with an RBI single in the sixth, and the Red Sox broke the game open with a four-run eighth that featured an RBI double by Betts, a bases-loaded walk to Devers and a two-run double by Nunez.
Devers left the game in the eighth inning after pulling up at third on Nunez's double with a hamstring injury. He is expected to be placed on the disabled list for the second time this month.
--Field Level Media