LDN - Sports

Red Sox roll over visiting Twins

[July 22, 2016] BOSTON -- Steven Wright has proven to be a tired bullpen's best friend this season.

A night after the Boston Red Sox used five relievers, the knuckleballer held down the fort for eight innings as the bats did the rest in a 13-2 rout of the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night at Fenway Park.

"My goal is just to go as deep as I can until they tell me I'm done," said Wright, who has four complete games this year and could have had a fifth Thursday.

Wright (12-5) opened the game with 4 1/3 perfect innings, setting down the first 13 batters he faced before giving up two runs -- one earned -- in the fifth.

He sat at 108 pitches through the eighth, but Red Sox manager John Farrell opted to bring in the struggling Clay Buchholz with a big lead in tow.

"Nah, I didn't ask him (to pitch the ninth) at all," Wright said after striking out a career-high-tying nine while allowing just four hits and a walk. "I knew I was pretty up there with the pitch count."

David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and drove in four runs, Jackie Bradley Jr. added three RBIs and Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts each had two RBIs for Boston (54-39), which maintained a 1/2-game lead over Baltimore for sole possession of first place in the American League East.

The Red Sox pounded out 17 hits a night after notching 16 against San Francisco. Boston saw 10 runs scored from the top three spots in the order.

The victory was the 300th of manager John Farrell's tenure with the Red Sox, making him the 11th manager in franchise history to reach the milestone.

"It means I've been fortunate to be in a position with a lot of really good players and work with a lot of really quality people," Farrell said.

Farrell, hired in 2013, is 454-449 in six seasons as a manager, four with Boston and two in Toronto.

Tyler Duffey (5-7) took the loss for the Twins. In 2 1/3 innings, he gave up six earned runs on nine hits, with zero strikeouts.

"When guys are confident, it's hard to get them out sometimes," Duffey said.

Max Kepler had two of his team's five hits and Robbie Grossman had an RBI for Minnesota (35-60), which became the AL's first 60-loss team and fell to 5-19 against the AL East this season.

After staking a 7-2 lead through 6 1/2 innings, the Red Sox tacked on a pair of runs in the seventh on Ortiz's single and Bradley's groundout.

Betts doubled home a run in the eighth before Pedroia singled in another, and Ortiz completed the scoring with a two-run homer over the bullpens in right field.

Clay Buchholz made his first appearance since July 2, coming on in the ninth to end the night.

"Got to give Clay a lot of credit for staying as sharp as possible given the situation," Farrell said.

"I thought he was crisp, and a lot of strikes with multiple pitches."

Boston struck quickly after Wednesday's 11-run outburst, scoring three in the opening frame.

Betts crushed a first-pitch homer into the second row of the Green Monster in left field, giving him six career leadoff blasts and four this season.

[to top of second column]

Red Sox starting pitcher Steven Wright (35) pitches against the Minnesota Twins during the second inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

"First pitch of the game -- home run, that's never a good taste in your mouth," Duffey said.

Ortiz's RBI single and Hanley Ramirez's run-scoring groundout capped the first-inning scoring.

Bogaerts laced a two-run double two innings later to spark another three-run frame for the Red Sox.

Bradley doubled in the next run three at-bats later.

Wright cruised through four innings before Max Kepler became Minnesota's first base runner with a one-out hard-hit single to left.

Kennys Vargas doubled in the next at-bat before Grossman grounded out to plate the Twins' first run.

Vargas scored on a fielding error by Wright after his pitch rolled to the backstop.

Boston catcher Ryan Hanigan flipped to Wright at the plate for the tag, which would have been in time, but the ball popped out of Wright's glove.

Bradley grabbed a run back with his solo homer to straightaway center in the bottom of the fifth.

NOTES: Boston DH David Ortiz recalled his time with Minnesota in The Players' Tribune. "My career didn't work out the way I planned with the Twins," Ortiz wrote Thursday, "but I don't have anything but love for the people there." Ortiz spent his first six seasons with the Twins. ... Red Sox RHP Clay Buchholz is "in a tough spot," manager John Farrell said. Buchholz (3-9, 5.91 ERA) is being saved for mop-up roles. ... Minnesota recalled LHP Buddy Boshers from Triple-A Rochester and outrighted RHP Neil Ramirez to Rochester before Thursday's game. ... Twins OF Reynaldo Rodriguez returned from his 80-game suspension on Thursday for using a banned performance-enhancing substance and was assigned to Single-A Advanced Fort Myers. He was suspended April 28 after testing positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. ... Hall of Famer and Minnesota legend Rod Carew threw the ceremonial first pitch. ... Twins RHP Kyle Gibson (2-6, 5.12 ERA) opposes Red Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (2-3, 7.18 ERA) on Friday.

Back to top