ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The Boston Red Sox won their ninth straight game on Friday night, getting a first-inning home run from David Ortiz and letting it stand in a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
Ortiz, greeted to cheers in his final series at the Trop, tagged Rays starter Chris Archer (8-19) with a two-run home run, in what would end up as Archer’s 11th straight loss against Boston over a span of 16 starts. Drew Pomeranz (3-5) threw five innings and the bullpen held Tampa Bay to one hit in the final four.
Boston (90-64) came in with a 5½-game lead in the American League East and held that lead on Toronto, now with eight games to play. The Rays (65-88) have dropped four of their last five, and are now 7-10 against the Red Sox this season. Archer set a franchise record with his 19th loss and now leads the majors as well.
The Rays got a leadoff double from Evan Longoria to put the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, but Brad Ziegler got three outs for his 19th save, including a strikeout swinging against Mikie Mahtook, who had homered for the Rays’ only run. Ziegler walked Corey Dickerson intentionally with two outs to get to rookie Juniel Querecuto, who made his major league debut Thursday and struck out to end the game.
Rays starter Chris Archer, who had lost 10 straight decisions against the Red Sox coming in, got into trouble in the first.
Archer walked Xander Bogaerts and then giving up a huge two-run home run to David Ortiz, who is opening his final series at Tropicana Field. Ortiz’s 37th home run of the season bounced off a catwalk high above right field and gave Boston a 2-0 lead.
The Rays got one run back in the second, as Mahtook hit a solo home run to left — his second of the season — to cut the lead to 2-1. Mahtook added two more hits in the first five frames. He had a .173 batting average coming in.
Tampa Bay managed only four hits in the first six innings against Pomeranz. The Rays threatened to tie the game in the fifth, with Brad Miller hitting a double and Mahtook following with a single.
With one out, Corey Dickerson hit a grounder and couldn’t beat out the double play, allowing Boston to escape with the lead.
NOTES: The eight-game winning streak for Boston is its longest in September in 30 years, since the 1986 team that made it to the World Series. All eight wins have come by four runs or less. … The Red Sox are the first team in MLB history to score exactly five runs in five straight games, all wins. The last team to win five straight games while scoring the exact same number of runs in each was the 1989 Brewers, who scored seven runs in each of six straight wins. … The Rays gave out their team honors at their Baseball Writers’ Association of America luncheon. 3B Evan Longoria was honored with the Don Zimmer Award (team MVP) while LHP Blake Snell was named Outstanding Rookie. Prospect Casey Gillaspie was Minor League Player of the Year and RHP Brent Honeywell was Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Indians 10, White Sox 4
CLEVELAND — Jose Ramirez doubled, homered and had four RBIs, Coco Crisp had three hits and three RBIs and the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 10-4 Friday night at Progressive Field.
The win is Cleveland’s fourth in a row as the Indians reduced their magic number for clinching the American League Central Division title to three games.
The Indians trailed 2-0 after three innings, but then scored 10 runs over the next three innings to hand the White Sox their sixth loss in a row.
Trevor Bauer (12-8) pitched 7⅔ innings, giving up four runs on seven hits to get the win.
Miguel Gonzalez (4-8) gave up five runs, four earned, in 4⅓ innings to take the loss.
Cleveland also got three hits and two RBIs from Mike Napoli, who now has 100 RBIs, the first Indians player in nine years to reach 100 RBI. Carlos Santana also had three hits.
Leading 6-4, the Indians blew the game open in the sixth inning when they sent nine men to the plate and scored four runs. With one out Santana singled off reliever Juan Minaya. Dan Jennings relieved Minaya and struck out Jason Kipnis for the second out.
But the next five Indians hitters reached base. Francisco Lindor walked, and Napoli singled, scoring Santana and sending Lindor to third. Ramirez followed with a double to right field, scoring Lindor and Napoli to give Cleveland a 9-4 lead.
Lonnie Chisenhall walked, and Crisp followed with a single, scoring Ramirez to make it 10-4.
The White Sox reached Bauer for two runs in the first inning. With one out Tim Anderson tripled into the gap in right-center field. Melky Cabrera then hit Bauer’s second pitch into the seats in right field for his 13th home run, giving Chicago a 2-0 lead.
White Sox starter Miguel Gonzalez retired 10 of the first 12 batters he faced, but in his second time through Cleveland’s order, the Indians started to make some noise.
With one out in the fourth, Napoli singled to right field, snapping his 0-for-21 hitless streak. Ramirez followed that with a booming home run over the right field wall, his 11th, a two-run blast that tied the game.
Gonzalez retired Chisenhall for the second out, but consecutive singles by Coco Crisp and Tyler Naquin put runners at first and second with two outs. Gonzalez, however, struck out Roberto Perez on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
It didn’t stay tied very long. Todd Frazier led off the top of the fifth inning with a double into the left field corner and Avisail Garcia hit Bauer’s first pitch over the right field wall, near the foul pole, for his 12th home run, to give the White Sox a two-run lead again at 4-2.
The Indians, however, knocked Gonzalez out of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Carlos Santana led off with a double and Kipnis was hit by a pitch. The runners moved up to second and third on a wild pitch by Gonzalez.
Santana then scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Lindor, his 14th sacrifice fly, the most in the majors and two shy of the Indians’ record of 16 set by Juan Gonzalez in 2001.
Kipnis scored on a single through the middle by Napoli, his 99th RBI, to tie it at 4. Minaya relieved Gonzalez. Napoli stole second and Ramirez hit a grounder to third baseman Frazier, who booted it for an error to put runners at first and second with one out.
Minaya struck out Chisenhall for the second out, but Crisp bounced a double off the right field wall, scoring Napoli and Ramirez and giving Cleveland a 6-4 lead.
In 4⅓ innings Gonzalez was charged with five runs — four earned — on eight hits with two strikeouts and no walks.