Field Level Media
Aug 31, 2019
Mookie Betts' two-out home run in the top of the 15th inning snapped a tie and lifted the Boston Red Sox to a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night/Saturday morning in Anaheim, Calif.
It was Betts' second home run of the game -- he also went deep in the first inning, on the fifth pitch of the game. His 15th-inning homer, his 23rd of the year, came on the 473rd pitch of the game.
Andrew Cashner (11-7), the last of eight Red Sox pitchers, did not allow a hit in four scoreless innings to get the win over Trevor Cahill (3-9), who was the Angels' eighth pitcher as well.
J.D. Martinez had a home run and a double for Boston, which remained 5 1/2 games behind the Oakland A's in the race for the American League's second wild card.
Albert Pujols had four hits, and Brian Goodwin hit two home runs for the Angels, who lost for the seventh time in eight games and fell a season-worst eight games under .500 (64-72). Shohei Ohtani had a rough game, going 0-for-8 with four strikeouts.
The Red Sox took a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Angels rallied to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Pujols, who had a two-run single in the fifth inning, had the key hit of the inning, slapping an 0-2 off-speed pitch from Brandon Workman into right field for an RBI single that made it 6-5.
And when Martinez booted the ball in right field for an error, Ohtani was able to come around and score from first on the play, tying the game at 6-6.
The Red Sox took a lead almost immediately, as Betts jumped on a fastball from Angels starter Jose Suarez and belted it over the fence in left field for a 1-0 lead. Boston added a run in the second inning on Brock Holt's two-out RBI single.
In the third, Martinez put Boston up 4-0 with a two-out, two-run homer, his 33rd of the season.
Suarez managed to get through five innings for just the second time in his past nine starts, giving up four runs on four hits and one walk while making 76 pitches. He struck out two.
Nathan Eovaldi, making just his third start since returning from a three-month absence caused by elbow surgery, held the Angels scoreless until Goodwin hit his first homer of the night in the third inning.
Eovaldi was done after four innings, allowing the one run on three hits and one walk with eight striekouts.
After Pujols' two-run single cut the Red Sox's lead to 4-3 in the fifth, the Red Sox responded with two runs in the sixth on an RBI double by Martinez and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Benintendi for a 6-3 lead.
Goodwin's second homer of the night -- his 15th of the season -- got the Angels within 6-4 in the seventh.
--Field Level Media