A police officer stands guard near the Boston Red Sox dugout between innings of the team’s baseball game against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park, Friday, July 22, 2016, in Boston. Dustin Pedroia would follow, and ripped a single the opposite way to give the Red Sox two baserunners with nobody out for Bogaerts. Dozier started the 4-2-3 double play, keeping the run out, and leaving the Sox down to one last out. Up until that point Gibson was very good.
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Xander Bogaerts hit a single with one away, but the next batter, David Ortiz, would ground into a double play. “Unable to really mount any threat through the first eight innings”.
“You guys are exhausted of hearing it, and I’m exhausted of saying it: I’ve got to execute”, Price said. Brian Dozier tagged him for a solo homer in the second inning and Miguel Sano delivered an RBI double in the sixth that proved to be the difference in the contest. Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson improved to 3-6 with a run plated on two hits (home run) over eight frames.
Closer Brandon Kintzler got his seventh save, preserving the lead in a wild bottom half of the ninth.
Dozier came home to get the lead runner, and backup catcher Juan Centeno quickly fired to Joe Mauer at first to complete the 14th double-play Ortiz has grounded into.
Hanley Ramirez lined out to right to end the game and Boston’s three-game winning streak.
Mookie Betts reached 20 home runs for the first time in his career for Boston (54-40), which had its season-high-tying seven-game home winning streak snapped. Red Sox RHP Koji Uehara (right pectoral strain) received a platelet-rich plasma injection Friday. Manager Paul Molitor said Suzuki should return Saturday. “He settled down, minimized the damage in the first, and then he just started making pitch after pitch, inning after inning”.
The Red Sox had 33 hits in their previous two games, including 17 Thursday night in a 13-2 rout of the Twins.
Betts’ blast sailed over the Green Monster in left field on the second pitch of the Boston first, giving him leadoff shots in back-to-back games.
Asked Thursday night whether he feared Betts would pass him for the team lead in homers, David Ortiz joked, “Man, I’m getting scared”. If the game would’ve been that easy, it wouldn’t be the way it is. “I don’t know that I’ve got quite enough years under my belt to demand the ninth inning”. They also got a solo homer from Dozier (his 17th) in the second.
The Minnesota Twins are looking to be respectable going forward and regroup for 2017. It’s not always gonna work their way too. “We had quality at-bats in that ninth inning”. He outdueled ballyhooed Boston Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who was gone by the sixth. The Twins picked up their 36th victory of the year, overcoming the Red Sox 2-1.
And for what it’s worth, Michael Martinez, who replaced Betts, made two spectacular plays in right and hit a single in the ninth to start Boston’s failed rally.
It seemed a little premature when Rodriguez got the hook with one out in the sixth, but Red Sox manager John Farrell’s thought process was sound.
“We wouldn’t take any risks with Mookie, certainly”, Farrell said. Minnesota C Kurt Suzuki (rest) wasn’t in the lineup. The temperature at gametime was 92 degrees. RHP Junichi Tazawa (right shoulder impingement) returned to the roster after being activated from the 15-day DL.
Ricky Nolasco (4-8, 5.02 ERA) has also proven somewhat durable in his recent starts, going at least six innings in seven of his last nine since the start of June.
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REYES PICKS UP THREE HITS: Jose Reyes had his first three-hit game since rejoining NY early this month and scored twice to help NY beat the Miami Marlins 5-3 on Friday night.
