Boston 4, Cleveland 3
When: 4:10 PM ET, Saturday, September 4, 2021
Where: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
Temperature:
77°
Umpires:
Home -
Larry Vanover, 1B -
Marvin Hudson, 2B -
Sean Barber, 3B -
Daniel Bellino
Attendance:
33081
By Field Level Media
Alex Verdugo singled with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Boston Red Sox over the visiting Cleveland Indians 4-3 Saturday in the second game of a three-game series.
It was the second walk-off hit this season for Verdugo (2-for-4 Saturday), who sent a pitch from Indians reliever Alex Young just out of the grasp of right fielder Daniel Johnson.
Pinch-hitter Travis Shaw opened the home ninth with an infield single before Taylor Motter entered as pinch-runner and moved to second on Jonathan Arauz's sacrifice bunt. Kyle Schwarber flied out, and both Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez walked to load the bases for Verdugo.
Devers launched a three-run blast for his team-leading 33rd home run in the seventh to give Boston a 3-0 lead. Christian Vazquez had two of Boston's seven hits to help the Red Sox secure their fourth straight victory.
Boston (79-59) moved four games ahead of Oakland for the second American League wild card spot following the A's 10-8 loss in Toronto.
Bobby Bradley put the Indians on the board with an RBI double in the ninth before Franmil Reyes crushed a two-out, two-run homer off reliever Adam Ottavino to tie it at 3-3 with Cleveland down to its final strike.
Reyes' homer extended the Indians' streak of 18 consecutive games with a home run.
Cleveland (67-66) has dropped back-to-back games including an 8-5 loss in the series opener Friday and fell 9 1/2 games behind in the wild-card race.
Ottavino (5-3) earned the win despite giving up three runs in the ninth. Red Sox starter Tanner Houck fell short of his first win of the season despite throwing five scoreless, three-hit innings, with seven strikeouts.
Indians starter Eli Morgan pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up three hits while walking four and striking out seven.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Cleveland |
|
Boston |
Eli Morgan
|
Player |
Tanner Houck
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
5.2 |
IP |
5.0 |
7 |
Strikeouts |
7 |
3 |
Hits |
3 |
0.00 |
ERA |
0.00 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Cleveland
|
7 |
1 |
13 |
.212 |
13 |
8 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
Boston
|
7 |
1 |
12 |
.241 |
18 |
8 |
4 |
8 |
0 |
0 |