BOSTON — Danny Salazar continued his marvelous run of pitching on Monday night at Fenway Park.
The Cleveland Indians right-hander turned in his seventh straight strong performance and right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall drove in three runs to lead the Indians to an 8-2 rout of the Boston Red Sox.
Facing a team that had just scored 45 runs on 60 hits against the Seattle Mariners over the weekend, Salazar allowed a run on four hits in seven innings, yielding only a home run to first baseman Travis Shaw that gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
Over his last seven starts, Salazar (11-6) is 4-2 with a 1.45 ERA. Coming into the game, the opposition was batting .144 against him in his previous six starts.
Chisenhall’s fly ball to the left-field wall was played into a two-run double to highlight a five-run fourth inning for the Indians, who have won four of their last five games. After first baseman Carlos Santana homered in the fifth off starter and loser Matt Barnes (3-3), Chisenhall led off the sixth with a homer off reliever Heath Hembree.
Left fielder Michael Brantley, back as the DH after missing three games with a shoulder problem, had two hits, an RBI and a stolen base for Cleveland.
Both Barnes, who made his first major-league start, and Hembree had been recalled by the Red Sox prior to the game.
Right-handers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen worked an inning apiece to finish it off, Allen allowing an RBI single to Shaw with two outs in the ninth.
This was the first meeting of the season between the two last-place teams. They end the season against each other in Cleveland and then open the 2016 campaign in the same spot.
The Indians pulled off the rare feat of having their first three batters of the game reach base, seeing all three try to steal yet having none of them score. One was thrown out stealing second and another, leadoff hitter Jose Ramirez, who had stolen second, was out at the plate on a grounder.
Barnes breezed through the second and third innings with four strikeouts and owned a 1-0 lead courtesy of Shaw’s homer when things fell apart in the fourth inning. The Indians batted around after the inning started with another strikeout. Center fielder Abraham Almonte drove in the first run with a drag bunt single, Chisenhall delivered his two-run hit, left fielder Jerry Sands got a run in with a groundout and third baseman Mike Aviles singled home a run in the five-run rally.
In the fifth inning, Santana crushed a Barnes pitch for his 13th home run to make it 6-1.
Hembree relieved Barnes in the sixth inning.
NOTES: Indians manager Terry Francona will meet his close friend and former pitching coach John Farrell at Massachusetts General Hospital on Tuesday for the first of Farrell’s chemotherapy treatments for lymphoma. “Right now I’m supposed to be a friend,” Francona said before Monday night’s game. “He’s one of my best friends.” … Farrell was again in the clubhouse before Monday’s game.
Liner hits Yanks pitcher in face
NEW YORK — New York Yankees right-hander Bryan Mitchell left Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins with two outs in the top of second inning after getting hit in the face by a line drive.
Mitchell was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital for an evaluation and diagnosed with a small nasal fracture. He was released from the hospital, but team doctors will monitor him for any possible concussion symptoms through Tuesday.
On an 0-2 pitch, Twins shortstop Eduardo Nunez hit a hard line drive and Mitchell had no time to react. The ball appeared to strike Mitchell on the right side of his face. He immediately fell to the ground and was bleeding as trainers attended to him.