Ceddanne Rafaela recorded his first career multi-homer game and drove in five as the host Boston Red Sox pulled away from the Detroit Tigers for a 7-3 win on Friday.
David Hamilton went 3-for-4 while Dominic Smith and Connor Wong each had two hits as the Red Sox finished with 12 hits.
Tanner Houck (5-5) gave up one run on three hits with six strikeouts and two walks in seven innings. He lowered his ERA to 1.85.
Riley Greene went 2-for-4 with a double, and Colt Keith hit a two-run home run for the Tigers.
Detroit jumped out to a first-inning lead. Greene lined a one-out single to center, stole second and scored on Gio Urshela’s single to right.
Houck quickly settled in after that, retiring six straight batters and working around Greene’s two-out double in the third.
The Red Sox broke through against Kenta Maeda (2-2) in the fourth. Rafael Devers started the rally with a leadoff double to center before scoring the tying run on Smith’s double into the left-field corner. Rafaela hit a three-run homer to left later in the inning to give Boston a 4-1 lead.
In the fifth, Rob Refsnyder increased the lead to 5-1 on his two-out double that plated Wong, who reached on a double.
Rafaela’s second homer of the game — and seventh of the season — pushed the lead to 7-1. Hamilton reached on a one-out infield single, stole second and came around to score on Rafaela’s blast to left-center.
Keith hit a two-run shot in the eighth inning off Boston reliever Greg Weissert to trim Detroit’s deficit to 7-3.
Maeda allowed eight hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two.
–Field Level Media
