Offense wasn’t a problem for the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon as they collected 14 hits and wrapped up a three-game series by beating the visiting Minnesota Twins 11-5.
Alex Verdugo and Yu Chang homered for Boston, which received seven strong innings from starting pitcher Tanner Houck. It was the longest start of Houck’s MLB career.
Houck (3-0) allowed three runs on six hits, struck out seven and walked one.
Kike Hernandez had three of Boston’s 14 hits and scored two runs.
After taking a 1-0 lead on Verdugo’s home run in the first inning, the Red Sox seized control by scoring six runs on seven hits in the third. Connor Wong delivered a two-run single and Jarren Duran laced a two-run double in the inning. Duran had three RBIs in the win.
All six runs in the inning were charged to reliever Emilio Pagan.
Twins starting pitcher Kenta Maeda (0-3) left the game at the end of the second inning after being hit in the left ankle by a Duran line drive. Maeda recovered and made the play to record the final out of the inning, but then dropped to the grass in front of the mound at Fenway Park for a few minutes. He was examined and then walked off the field.
Verdugo’s home run was the only hit Maeda allowed in his two innings on the mound.
After Hernandez (3-for-5) scored on a Duran sacrifice fly in the fifth, Chang made it 10-1 by hitting a two-run home run later in the inning. All three runs came against Jorge Alcala.
Willi Castro hit a two-run home run for Minnesota in the seventh, and he also scored on a Max Kepler double in the fifth.
Boston added to its lead when a Masataka Yoshida single drove in Christian Arroyo in the bottom of the eighth. Castro was on the mound for the final out of the eighth.
Minnesota scored twice in the ninth. A Christian Vazquez single scored Nick Gordon, and Vazquez scored on an Edouard Julien single.
–Field Level Media
