They have been very patient at the plate, ranking third in the AL with an average of 3.4 walks per game.
Advertisement
A day after Mookie Betts hit three home runs in a win over the Diamondbacks, the right fielder made a catch he probably shouldn’t have.
OK, so that third point is subjective.
His teammates wanted to see him become the 17th player in major league history with four homers in a game.
Wily Peralta (5-8) allowed one run on four hits over six innings to earn his first win since June 11. Betts also has 18 stolen bases, which is one less than Mike Trout.
Betts joined the iconic Williams as the only Red Sox hitters since 1913 with multiple three-homer games in a season. He also leads the league in at-bats (492) and has played all but 48 innings this season. He improved to 12-0 at Fenway in 2016, and the Red Sox have won all 13 of his home starts.Dave Ferriss was the last Boston pitcher to start a season 13-0 at Fenway in 1946.Porcello hadn’t won more than 15 games in a campaign, a total he reached with Detroit in 2014. The Red Sox will take on a right-hander (Greinke) in this game and have a 49-39 record against right-handed starting pitchers this season. He’s a great player. When Betts went deep three times in Baltimore he ended up driving in only five runs in that game.
Andrew Benintendi almost had his first career homer after hitting a shot next to the yellow line that separates the Green Monster and the wall in center.
At New York, Steven Matz carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning and New York won consecutive games for the first time in more than a month, beating San Diego. He homered into the first row of the Monster seats in the second inning against Greinke, then clocked a 356-foot shot that hooked inside the foul pole atop the Monster and was estimated at 382 feet.
The Diamondbacks offense mustered a whole two runs, both driven in by Michael Bourn. Even his teammates were imploring him to swing as hard as he could in pursuit of homer No. 4.
“I was doing what I could just to stay relaxed and calm on the mound”, Ziegler said after Boston beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 on Saturday night.
“If it was going to happen, it was going to happen”, Betts said. But even with his two-game funk, Betts entered the day batting.357 (30-for-84) with 11 doubles, one triple, five homers and a 1.088 OPS in his previous 21 games – hardly a slump. Barring a miraculous comeback from the Arizona Diamondbacks, it looks like Greinke is about to get handed his fourth loss of the year.
Trailing 3-1 in the fifth, the Red Sox charged ahead with three runs that were keyed by right fielder Socrates Brito misplaying a flyball for an error.
The 8 RBI are a career-high for Betts and the most driven in by a Red Sox hitter since Bill Mueller in 2003.
Advertisement
The St Louis Cardinals scored five runs in the eighth as they rallied for a 6-4 win over the Chicago Cubs, splitting their four-game series as they leave the Windy City still 12 games back in the NL Central.
