Ortiz tied Lou Gehrig for 10th in major league history with 1,190 extra-base hits after his homer Friday that led to a 2-1 victory as Boston maintained a 5 ½-game lead in the American League East and reduced its magic number to four.
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The Red Sox went to the ALCS back in 1999, and while the book’s not complete yet on whether Porcello can win 23 games or the Red Sox can make it to the ALCS, the victory last night did lead to the team clinching a playoff berth.
The Boston Red Sox look to sweep the Tampa Bay Rays early Sunday afternoon. He’s faced the Rays five times this season and made it through six in every outing and allowed three runs on three occasions and one run twice. The win was the 10th of the season for the Red Sox against the Rays guaranteeing them the season series for just the second time since 2008.
ORIOLES 6, DIAMONDBACKS 1 (at Baltimore) – Trey Mancini hit his third homer in nine major league at-bats, Mark Trumbo connected for his league-leading 45th homer and Baltimore pulled a half-game ahead of the Tigers for the AL’s second wild card and trail the Toronto Blue Jays by 1 1/2 games for the top spot. That includes 12 no-decisions in which he’s allowed two runs or fewer, the most by any pitcher in any season as long as such statistics have been kept at baseballreference.com.
Chicago scored four runs in the first inning off Mike Leake (9-11). Brad Ziegler, the fifth Boston reliever, got his fourth save after allowing a leadoff double in the ninth to Evan Longoria. Rizzo, Zobrist and Chris Coghlan drove in runs in the first off Leake, who lasted 3 1/3 innings and is winless in four starts since recovering from shingles. The Rays dropped 24 games under.500 for the first since the end of the 2007 season.
ROYALS 7, TIGERS 4 (at Detroit) – Paulo Orlando hit a tying, two-run double and Eric Hosmer followed with a three-run homer against Francisco Rodriguez (3-4), capping a comeback from a 4-2 deficit in the ninth. Franklin, who made pinch-hitting appearances Wednesday and Friday, said he can run the bases, and even steal, but would be limited to DH duties for now.
Ortiz, greeted to cheers in his final series at the Trop, tagged Rays starter Chris Archer (8-19) with a two-run home run, in what would end up as Archer’s 11th straight loss against Boston over a span of 16 starts.
NY was shut out for the second straight night and lost for the ninth time in 12 games, following a seven-game winning streak.
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Tampa Bay went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. All three runs against Porcello came in the third inning.
