By Zachary McMahon –
The Boston Red Sox played their first game of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, FL on Monday night. The Sox avoided a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a win on Sunday afternoon. The Rays got their four-game win streak snapped with a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
Last week the Sox fell to a 3-1 series loss against the Rays at Fenway, and the only win was a result of a walk-off RBI single by Romy Gonzalez in extra innings.
Vaughn Grissom had the night off so David Hamliton took over at second base. Connor Wong was the designated hitter, and Reese McGuire started at catcher, as Tyler O’Neil was back in left field, and Ceddane Rafaela was back at shortstop.
Tanner Houck pitched seven shutout innings, only allowing two hits, one walk, and struck out five batters. Houck ended the contest with a 1.90 ERA which makes him the 11th Red Sox pitcher to have a sub-2.00 ERA in his first ten starts. The last pitcher to accomplish this seat was Clay Bucholz who had a 1.73 ERA in the first ten starts of 2013.
Rays starter Taj Bradley struck out eight of the nine batters when they batted for their first time. The only one that was not a strikeout was Rafael Devers grounding out to second base in the second inning.
All the fireworks for the Sox offense happened in the fourth inning, as Jarren Duran would speed to his eighth triple of the season (leading the MLB). The last time anybody had 8+ triples in the Red Sox’s first 48 games was all the way back in 1913, when hall of famer Tris Speaker had nine in the same span. Duran was able to score easily on an RBI Double by Wilyer Abreu.
Devers hit a homer in his sixth straight game, a two-run blast to left field. He broke the Red Sox record for longest home run game streak.
In Tuesday’s game, he could be the eighth player in MLB history to hit a homer in seven straight games, the most recent player to hit a homer in six or more games is Mike Trout in 2022 when he did it in seven games. With that he also extended his hitting streak to ten games, scored a run in each of his last eight games, and a 14-game on-base streak.
Rafaela hit a two-run blast of his own to right center that also scored Hamilton to make it 5-0 in the fifth inning.
The Sox would not score for the rest of the game, but Houck and Justin Slaten shut out the Rays the rest of the way. Slaten pitched the final two innings as he only allowed one hit and struck out three batters.
The Red Sox defense played clean as they let off no errors for the second straight game and turned two double plays against Brandon Lowe and Ben Rortvedt. Houck and Slaten had eight strikeouts combined, and center fielder Jonny DeLuca struck out in all three at-bats.
Seven of the nine Sox batters had one hit, as O’Neil and McGuire were the only batters to not have a hit.
The Sox have won two games in a row as they go back to .500 with a 24-24 record, and they will look to win the series on Tuesday at 6:50 pm first pitch. Greg Weissert will be starting on the mound against Zach Littell. It would’ve been Garrett Whitlock but he is currently being reevaluated after his rehab performance in Worcester.