As the old saying goes, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes it rains.”
The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles will take another stab at playing a day-night doubleheader in Boston on Saturday. The teams were slated to play one on Friday following a Thursday rainout, but an extended period of evening rain postponed the scheduled nightcap.
Before the rains came, the Red Sox broke out the bats for 20 hits and won 19-5, scoring 13 runs while running through the lineup two complete times in the eighth inning. Third baseman Alex Bregman left the game early due to right quad tightness.
“That was awesome,” Bregman said of his teammates’ performance. “It made sitting on the training table a little bit happier, just watching them swing the bats like that, pick me up like that.”
Rafael Devers led the Boston onslaught with eight RBIs, the most by any Red Sox player since Mookie Betts achieved the feat in 2017. The third baseman-turned-designated hitter highlighted his night with a three-run homer and a grand slam in a span of three innings, giving him five homers in the past six games.
“I told (Rob Refsnyder), ‘Man, he was (0-for-19) with 15 strikeouts, and everybody was jumping off the roof of the building and (saying) he has to play third for him to hit’ and all that,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, recalling how Devers started the season. “The guy hits. He hits. He’s been hitting since 2017.”
Refsnyder also hit a three-run shot during the big inning.
As for Bregman, the Red Sox appear to have dodged a bullet with his injury status, at least immediately.
“We’ll see what (Saturday) brings, but actually I’m positive from what I initially thought,” Bregman said. “Hopefully I sleep good and (in the morning) it feels great.”
Boston right-hander Hunter Dobbins (2-1, 3.62 ERA) has taken a regular turn through the rotation all month, but looks to produce his first win since April 18 when he makes his first career start against Baltimore in the opener.
The 25-year-old Dobbins has allowed one or fewer earned runs in three of his six starts this season, including a 4 2/3-inning Monday outing against the New York Mets won by Boston.
Lucas Giolito (1-1, 7.08 ERA) is scheduled to start the Saturday finale after having his Friday night start rained out. He’s faced Baltimore five times in his career (all starts) and is 3-2 with a 5.19 ERA.
Despite winding up with 14 hits on Friday, the loss marked Baltimore’s ninth in 10 games. Jackson Holliday was 2-for-5 for Baltimore and is on a career-long nine-game hit streak.
“I think we gave ourselves a great chance, and we fought,” starting pitcher Cade Povich said.
In the opener on Saturday, Baltimore’s Zach Eflin (3-2, 5.08) will look to rebound from allowing eight runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings in last Sunday’s loss to the Washington Nationals.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino is hoping to get plenty out of Eflin after running through four pitchers in relief of Povich, who threw five solid innings. One of those pitchers was position player Emmanuel Rivera, who took the brunt of the damage, allowing eight runs in the eighth.
“This is Major League Baseball,” Mansolino said. “I think we’ve just got to move on. We know we have a second game (before it was postponed), we know we’re going to try to win that game. I feel like they understand that we did what we had to do at that point in the game to try to win the (next) one.”
Eflin has already faced the Red Sox once this season, throwing six innings of three-run ball in taking the 3-0 loss at Camden Yards on April 2. He is 3-1 with a 5.00 ERA in seven career starts against them.
Baltimore’s Game 2 starter had not been announced as of early Saturday morning.
–Field Level Media
