The weather is scorching hot in Boston and so are the Boston Red Sox. The Sox have now won seven straight games including a 4 game sweep of the reeling Kansas City Royals. Today was a complete domination of the Royals as the Boston bats exploded for SEVENTEEN hits and 15 runs. Nathan Eovaldi (9-4, 3.41 ERA) tossed 7 shutout innings while allowing just 5 hits to keep the Royals off the board. Danny Santana, Kike Hernandez and JD Martinez all homered while Rafael Devers took the league lead in rbis. Marwin Gonzalez was 3 for 4 and the Sox are rolling after their 15-1 beat down of the Royals at Fenway Park.
Eovaldi got the ball in the top of the first inning and Whit Merrifield lined a base hit to center to start. Jorge Soler popped up to left but Carlos Santana dropped a base hit to right. Salvador Perez flied out to the right field warning track to move Merrifield to third but Ryan O'Hearn struck out swinging to end the inning. The Sox wasted no time getting to Bubic in the bottom of the first as Kike Hernandez hit another leadoff home run (9th of the season) to start. Alex Verdugo was hit by a pitch and JD Martinez walked, but Xander Bogaerts beat out a double play ball to put runners at the corners. Rafael Devers banged into a double play to end the inning with the Sox up 1-0.
Hunter Dozier doubled to left to start the top of the second but Jarrod Dyson flied out to center. Sebastian Rivero hit a grounder to short and Marwin Gonzalez threw out Dozier at third. Nicky Lopez flied out to center to end the inning. Hunter Renfroe took strike three to start the bottom of the second before Gonzalez flied out to center. Danny Santana struck out swinging to end the inning.
Merrifield flied out to right to start the top of the third before Soler flied out to left. Santana singled to center but was forced at second by Perez to end the inning. The Sox did nothing in the bottom of the third as Connor Wong struck out swinging to start. Hernandez walked but Verdugo banged into a double play to end the inning.
O'Hearn whiffed on a nasty splitter to start the top of the fourth before Devers almost cleaned out Gonzalez while Marwin was catching a pop up. Dyson grounded back to the mound to end the inning. The Sox exploded in the bottom of the fourth when Martinez crushed his 17th home run to dead center to increase the lead. Bogaerts grounded out to second and Devers grounded into the shift, but Renfroe walked. Gonzalez dropped a base hit to left and Santana hit his first home run since May 22nd into the Sox bullpen. Wong grounded back to the mound to end the inning with the Sox up 5-0.
Eovaldi blew away Rivero with a 99 mph fastball to start the top of the fifth but Lopez hit a roller up the middle for a base hit. Merrifield popped up to third in foul territory and Soler flied out to right to end the inning. Ervin Santana came in to pitch the bottom of the fifth and Hernandez flied out to center to start. Verdugo singled to right, Martinez doubled to left and Bogaerts was plunked to load the bases. Devers ripped a base hit to center to score Verdugo and Martinez to ice the game. Lopez made a great diving stab on a Renfroe grounder and Bogaerts was out at third on the force. Gonzalez walked to re-load the bases and Santana hit a pop up infield single to second to score Devers. Somehow Ervin Santana balked home Renfroe but Wong struck out swinging to end the inning with the Sox ahead 9-0.
Eovaldi returned for the top of the sixth and he blew away Santana on a 98 mph fastball to start. Perez went down hacking on an 86 mph slider. O'Hearn grounded out to third to end the inning with Eovaldi at only 74 pitches. Josh Staumont came in for the bottom of the sixth with Hanser Alberto now in for Merrifield and Edward Olivares in for Santana. Hernandez popped up to right to start before Verdugo dropped a base hit to right. Martinez hit a double play ball to short but Alberto bobbled the relay to first to continue the inning. Bogaerts made Alberto pay with a double down the left field line and Devers mauled his 20th home run of the season ten rows back over the Royals bullpen to take the league lead in rbis. Renfroe struck out swinging to end the inning but it was now 12-0.
Eovaldi returned for the top of the seventh inning and Dozier flied out to right on the first pitch. Dyson grounded out to short and Rivero struck out swinging to end the inning. Eovaldi was outstanding, allowing just 5 hits and no runs in 7 innings.
Scott Barlow came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and Gonzalez singled to right to start. Wong blooped a single to right to move Gonzalez to third and Michael Chavis pinch hit for Hernandez. Chavis scored Gonzalez with a sac fly and Wong took second on a wild a pitch. Verdugo struck out swinging to end the inning with the Sox ahead 13-0.
Matt Andriese came in to pitch the top of the eighth and Lopez singled to center to start. Olivares banged into a double play and Soler grounded out to second to end the inning. Anthony Swarzak came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth and Martinez took strike three. Bogaerts flied out to left but Devers got a base hit to right. Renfroe lashed a base hit over the head of Lopez and Soler dove and missed on a bloop by Gonzalez to score Devers. Santana doubled off the Monster to score Renfroe but Wong struck out to end the inning with the Sox ahead 15-0.
Andriese returned to close out the top of the ninth and Alberto popped up to second to start. Perez went down hacking and O'Hearn hit a routine grounder to second....under the glove of Gonzalez for an error. The Royals pounced as Dozier dumped a base hit to right and Dyson doubled into the right field corner to score O'Hearn. Rivero struck out swinging to end the game. The Sox had won it 15-1.
Hero of the Night is Nathan Eovaldi. He tossed 7 shutout innings while allowing just 5 hits.
The Good:
Kike Hernandez was 1 for 3 with a walk and a solo home run.
Michael Chavis drove in a run in his only plate appearance.
Alex Verdugo was 2 for 4 with a hit by pitch and a run scored.
JD Martinez was 2 for 4 with a walk, solo home run and 3 total runs scored.
Rafael Devers was 3 for 5 with a 3 run homer, 5 total rbis and 3 total runs scored.
Marwin Gonzalez was 3 for 4 with a walk, rbi and 2 runs scored.
Danny Santana was 3 for 5 with a 3 run homer and 5 total rbis.
The Bad:
None.
The Ugly:
Xander Bogaerts was just 1 for 4 but scored a run.
Hunter Renfroe was just 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts but walked and scored 3 runs.
Connor Wong was just 1 for 5 with a hat trick of 3 strikeouts.
Matt Andriese allowed an unearned run in 2 innings of work.
Final Thoughts:
The Sox are absolutely rolling after winning their seventh game in a row. They wiped out the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals including this epic demolition today. Kike Hernandez has turned into Johnny Damon at a convenient time when everyone was clamoring for Jarren Duran to make his MLB debut. Danny Santana and Marwin Gonzalez are on the hot-seat as well and both responded big time today. If Chavis is gone when Christian Arroyo comes back, somebody has to go if Sox brass want to see what Duran's got. This is creating the good kind of competition where everyone's stepping up to keep their jobs. Eovaldi pitched a hell of a game today and could have gone 8 innings easily if the game was a lot closer. Andriese looked rattled after the ninth inning error but luckily the game was well in hand at that point. If the Sox can beat up the Oakland A's and Los Angeles Angels heading into the all-star break, they'll be in good shape as the second half of the season goes along. The win improved the Sox to 51-31, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the AL East. The Sox now play a real contender when they fly to the west coast to play the A's. Tomorrow night Eduardo Rodriguez (6-4, 5.83 ERA) takes on Frankie Montas of the A's at 9:40 PM Eastern time at Oakland Coliseum.
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