A strong showing for Eduardo Rodriguez Sunday led the Red Sox to a 5-3 win over the Mariners, evening the series to end the ten game home stand.
“That’s what aces do,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “They put their team on their back and they carry us to a W.
E-Rod went seven innings allowing three runs off six hits while also issuing no walks and fanning eight. Adam Ottavino would set up Matt Barnes for the save.
Offensively for Boston, it was a four run first inning that propelled the team to victory. The frame would start with a base hit from Kike Hernandez, followed by two consecutive walks by Devers and Martinez to put the bases loaded with nobody out.
Christian Vazquez would pick up the lone RBI hit in the inning. Hunter Renfroe and Marwin Gonzalez would both walk to bring in runs, and Christian Arroyo would bring in the fourth run with a hit by pitch. But Bobby Dalbec would hit into an inning ending double play.
The fifth run came from a Xander Bogaerts RBI double in the second inning, but that would be all in terms of offense Sunday for the Red Sox.
“Overall a good win,” Cora said.
Christian Arroyo is going to be getting x-rays on his hand after sustaining an injury on it in Sunday’s action.
“He’s gonna get x-ray’s right now, Cora said. “Hurt pretty bad, but he was able to play defense. I told him just to play defense. I told him just ‘don’t worry about your at-bats.’ If you can play defense just grind it out.”
The Red Sox haven’t released anything yet on his injury.
The Red Sox went 5-5 on their ten game home stand, splitting each of the three series. They split the four game series against the White Sox, then split a two game series versus the Blue Jays, and the recent four game series against the Mariners they split.
“Overall, C+ I guess,” Cora said in regards to the home stand.
The 5-5 record in their last ten games comes after going 9-1 in the previous ten games, with a nine game win streak before they gave up a walk-off single against the Twins to end the streak.
“We played some quality teams,” Cora said. “Overall, I think this is what we’re going to get. I do believe there’s a lot of good teams, a lot of good baseball teams. It’s not going to be easy, it’s gonna be a grind, but we know that. We know that we can compete with those. We do believe that you have to dominate at home.”‘
The Red Sox remain in first place of the AL East, at 14-9. Behind them is the Rays, who are sitting currently at 11-11.
“We’ll take it,” Cora said. “If you ask me before the season if you’d take this record going into New York, absolutely. One-hundred percent. Everybody in that clubhouse is happy that we have this record, but at the same time everybody in this clubhouse knows that we gotta play better baseball. We have to keep improving.”
*Photo via Providence Journal*