Rays remain hot, rout Red Sox for 8th straight win
Denard Span, Wilson Ramos, Carlos Gomez and Johnny Field all homered Saturday as the Tampa Bay Rays won their eighth straight game, plastering the Boston Red Sox 12-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.
Scoring in every inning but the first and fourth, Tampa Bay finished with a total of 18 hits in its latest offensive onslaught. The Rays have scored a whopping 63 runs in their hot stretch, plating eight runs or more in six different games.
Tampa Bay snapped a 5-5 tie in the sixth when second baseman Eduardo Nunez committed a throwing error after Matt Duffy's infield single, enabling Adeiny Hechavarria to score.
The Rays played add-on from that point. Gomez led off the seventh with a long homer to left over the Green Monster, his fourth of the year. Jesus Sucre upped the lead to 8-5 in the eighth with an RBI double.
Tampa Bay made it a rout in the ninth with four more runs. Brad Miller knocked in Span with a single and Field lofted a three-run shot just over the wall in left for his first major league homer.
Ryan Yarbrough (1-1) pitched four innings of relief for his first big league victory. He permitted three hits and two runs, walking none and fanning six. Starter Yonny Chirinos lasted only two-plus innings, yielding six hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts.
David Price (2-3) was tagged with the loss after a shaky 5 2/3 innings. Price gave up eight hits and six runs, five of them earned, walking four and whiffing five.
Staked to a 1-0 edge after Xander Bogaerts' sacrifice fly in the first, Price ran into problems with the long ball. Span's liner to right-center field eluded Jackie Bradley Jr. with Ramos aboard. The play was originally scored a hit and an error but was changed to an inside-the-park homer, the second of Span's career.
Ramos touched Price for a two-run shot in the third, his fourth of the year. Price also walked Daniel Robertson with the bases loaded in the fifth.
Rafael Devers cracked a solo shot for the Red Sox, finishing the day 3-for-5 with two RBIs.
Red Sox leadoff man Mookie Betts left the game in the top of the fifth inning with right hamstring tightness and is day-to-day, the team announced. Meanwhile, the Rays removed Ramos after a long single in the top of the seventh with bilateral leg tightness. He, too, is day-to-day.
--Field Level Media
