By Zachary McMahon –
The Boston Red Sox traveled to St. Louis to face the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Friday night for the first weekend series opener. The Red Sox have just come off a series loss against the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1, while the Cardinals lost the series finale against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, which snapped a three-game winning streak that snapped a previous seven-game losing streak.
The Cardinals previously swept the Red Sox last season at Fenway, winning all three games. The Red Sox have won the first three interleague three-game series, taking two out of three against the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, and Washington Nationals (all at Fenway).
Both Ceddanne Rafaela and Romy Gonzalez had the night off as David Hamliton started at shortstop in this game. Meanwhile, Tyler O’Neil comes back to St. Louis for the first time since being signed by the Red Sox in the offseason. He spent his first five seasons as a Cardinal.
Brayan Bello started in his second game since being activated from the injured list on May 12 against the Washington Nationals, where he went five innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs, two walks, while only striking out one batter.
However, the Cardinals hit Bello hard from the get go, as Brandon Donovan hit a ground rule double that hopped over into the stands in left field, and then Lars Nootbaar hits a two-run homer before there was an out in the inning.
Bello would pitch 4 ⅔ innings, allowing seven hits, five earned runs, no walks, and four strikeouts.
O’Neil hit a single, Dominic Smith hit a triple, and then Hamliton scored both of them in with his first career triple, which was a two-run triple that tied the game up at two in the top half of the second inning..
In the bottom half, The Cardinals would strike back with a solo homer of their own by Nolan Gorman with his sixth of the season. The Sox would rebound with a solo homer from Rafael Devers, who has now homered for the third straight game, and is in a seven-game hitting streak.
The Cardinals then hit two more homers in the next three innings as he Alec Burleson hit a solo homer to right center, and a two-run homer by Mason Winn to make it 7-3.
The Sox scored two runs in the seventh when Jarren Duran had a RBI groundout that scored Vaughn Grissom, and then Hamliton scored on a RBI double by Connor Wong, who had a four-hit game.
Next, the Cardinals scored three runs in the seventh and eighth innings, which were RBI singles by Burleson, Ivan Herrera, and Nolan Arenado.
The Sox tried to cut down what was a five-run deficit in the ninth, when Rob Refsnyder, who pinch hit for Wilyer Abreu in the seventh, reached on a single and second on a throwing error by Cardinals pitcher John King. After a single by Wong, Refsnyder scored on a fielder’s choice on a ground ball by Devers, as King would throw out Wong at second and Devers reached first. But that would not be enough as O’Neil lined out to center fielder Michael Siani to end the game, and to seal the win for St. Louis.
Wong’s four hit performance was his 2nd four-hit performance of the season as he also had this performance on April 24 against the Cleveland Guardians, which included two home runs.
The Red Sox are now under .500 at 22-23 for the first time since March 30 when they were 1-2, after falling to the Seattle Mariners in two straight games in the opening series in the west coast. The Red Sox have not lost four out of the last five games.
The two teams will play on Saturday night at 7:15 first pitch with Kutter Crawford on the mound against Miles Mikolas on NESN/NESN360.
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