Rafael Devers set a Red Sox franchise record for consecutive games with a home run in Boston’s series-opening 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In the fourth inning, the third baseman wrote himself into the Red Sox record book with an opposite-field, two-run shot to left on a 97 mph four-seam fastball from Taj Bradley (1-2) for a 3-0 lead.
It was his sixth straight game going deep, eclipsing the high mark most recently matched by Bobby Dalbec in 2020.
His 10th blast traveled an estimated 382 feet and left him two games shy of tying the major league record of eight.
Jarren Duran tripled and scored on Wilyer Abreu’s double earlier that inning. Ceddanne Rafaela stepped up with a two-run long ball in the fifth.
Boston starter Tanner Houck (4-5) used 94 pitches over seven innings to shut down the Rays. The right-hander allowed two hits, fanned five and issued one walk via a defensive alignment violation by Rafaela on a full count.
In breaking a three-game losing streak in May, Houck lowered his ERA to 1.94.
Justin Slaten finished the three-hit shutout with two scoreless frames.
Yandy Diaz, Josh Lowe and Jose Caballero had singles as the Rays were blanked for the second time.
Isaac Paredes went 0-for-3 and failed to reach base for the first time in 19 games.
In the lineup for the first time since April 7, second baseman Brandon Lowe returned in the cleanup spot and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and hit into a double play.
Bradley fanned a season-high 10 batters without a walk, but he surrendered five runs on six hits over seven innings.
In three perfect innings, Bradley overpowered Boston the first time through the lineup by unleashing a high-90s fastball and a nasty splitter to whiff eight of the nine batters he faced — six swinging.
Houck nearly matched Bradley. Other than the defensive alignment violation that led to a walk, he yielded just a single to Diaz, who was thrown out by Abreu trying to stretch it into a double to end the third.
Boston struck in the fourth after Duran led off the fourth with his eighth triple of the year, then scored on Abreu’s scorched double off the first-base bag. Devers homered two batters later.
The visitors added two more in the fifth on Rafaela’s fifth homer after David Hamilton singled and stole second.
–Field Level Media
