Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neill hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning and did the same in the eighth inning to help the Boston Red Sox defeat the visiting Baltimore Orioles 12-3 on Monday.
After Refsnyder’s two-run homer broke a 1-1 tie in the third, O’Neill hit a solo shot to extend Boston’s lead to 4-1. Both long balls came against Baltimore starter Cade Povich.
Refsnyder and O’Neill then added back-to-back solo home runs against Cole Irvin in the eighth.
Refsnyder had four hits and five RBIs in the win. O’Neill and Rafael Devers each added three hits for the Red Sox (73-71). Ceddanne Rafaela collected two hits and four RBIs.
Povich (2-8) gave up four runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked two.
Anthony Santander homered for Baltimore (82-63), his 40th of the season. The right fielder had two hits and three RBIs in the loss.
Boston starter Brayan Bello (13-7) was pulled with one out in the sixth and improved to 3-1 against Baltimore this season. He gave up two runs on three hits, walked five and struck out five. Josh Winckowski allowed a run in three innings to earn his second save.
After Gunnar Henderson led off the game with a double, Santander’s one-out single handed the Orioles a 1-0 lead. The Red Sox tied the game in the bottom of the first when Devers scored from third on an O’Neill groundout.
The home runs by Refsnyder and O’Neill put the Red Sox up by three runs, but Colton Cowser scored when Santander drew a bases-loaded walk to make it a 4-2 game in the fourth.
The Red Sox took an 8-2 lead in the sixth. Rafaela hit a single that scored Romy Gonzalez and Connor Wong, and then Refsnyder came up with a single that scored Danny Jansen and Rafaela.
Santander’s home run trimmed Boston’s lead to 8-3 in the seventh.
Boston pushed across two more runs in the seventh when Rafaela’s double drove in Jansen and Trevor Story. Refsnyder (No. 11) and O’Neill (No. 29) each hit their second home run of the game to make it 12-3 in the eighth.
The only other time Boston had two players hit back-to-back homers twice in the same game was when Mo Vaughn and Tim Naehring accomplished the feat on April 19, 1994, against the Oakland A’s.
–Field Level Media
