BOSTON — Chris Sale day was a success for the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon.
The veteran left-hander through five innings of work in his first major-league start in 732 days, allowing a pair of solo homers but ended his day with eight strikeouts. He was awarded the win.
But it was a much more impressive outing by Boston’s offense, who scored a whopping 16 runs after tallying eight the day before.
With the bases loaded in the first, a passed ball and a three-run homer from Rafael Devers made it 4-0. A pair of RBI hits from Xander Bogaerts (double) and Alex Verdugo (single) would put it out of reach in just the second inning, at 6-0.
In the fourth, Devers added to his day with an RBI single. Jarren Duran smacked an RBI triple into the ally in the following inning, and it was followed up by a pair of two-run homers from Bobby Dalbec and J.D. Martinez. Bogaerts also sprinkled in an RBI single as it was 14-2 after just the fifth inning.
The Red Sox’s offense would cool down a bit, but would be able to make it 16-2 after two solo shots off the bats of Dalbec and Hunter Renfroe.
Hirokazu Sawamura, Hansel Robles, Austin Davis, and Martin Perez combined for four scoreless innings out of the bullpen, as the Sox picked up their 68th win of the season. They capture the series victory, and look for the sweep tomorrow afternoon.
(Photo by Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)