J.D. Martinez homered, tripled and drove in two runs and Rafael Devers smacked a two-run homer to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 5-3 victory over the host Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.
Rob Refsnyder hit the tiebreaking homer in the fourth inning for the Red Sox (72-75), who won for the third time in the past four games.
TJ Friedl homered, and Jake Fraley and Donovan Solano each had three hits for the Reds (58-90). Cincinnati has lost 10 of its last 12 games.
Boston’s Brayan Bello (2-6) allowed one run and eight hits over five innings. He struck out five and walked two.
Ryan Brasier, Zack Kelly and Matt Barnes each pitched one perfect inning of relief for the Red Sox.
Matt Strahm allowed a single to Stuart Fairchild to start the ninth. After retiring the next batter, Strahm walked three straight hitters to force in a run.
John Schreiber entered, and Kyle Farmer hit a sacrifice fly to cut the Boston lead to two. Schreiber then retired Fraley on a grounder to first to record his eighth save of the season.
Cincinnati’s Nick Lodolo (4-7) served up two homers while giving up three runs and three hits over five innings. He struck out seven, walked three and hit three batters.
Boston got on the board with two outs in the third inning when Martinez bashed a deep drive to center. Cincinnati’s Nick Senzel crashed into the wall and the ball rolled toward right-center as Xander Bogaerts scored from first and Martinez ended up at third with a triple.
Senzel departed the contest with an apparent leg injury and was replaced by Fairchild.
Cincinnati knotted the score in the bottom of the third inning when Friedl smacked a leadoff homer to right. It was his seventh homer of the season and also the first home run off Bello, whose streak ended at 44 1/3 innings without a homer to start his career.
Boston took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Refsnyder jumped on an 0-2 fastball from Lodolo and hit it 410 feet into the top deck in left. The blast was Refsnyder’s fifth of the season.
Martinez made it 3-1 in the fifth when he hit a two-out shot to center off Lodolo. The 420-foot homer was Martinez’s 12th of the season.
Tommy Pham led off the ninth with a double off Hunter Strickland and Devers followed with a two-run blast to center that traveled 413 feet. It was his 27th of the season.
–Field Level Media
