Tyler O’Neill hit two home runs, Rob Refsnyder had two hits and two RBIs and the Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 6-0 in Denver on Tuesday night.
Cooper Criswell pitched a career-high seven innings for the Red Sox, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Boston’s Rafael Devers, Romy Gonzalez and Masataka Yoshida had two hits each.
Brennan Bernardino and Greg Weissert each threw an inning to complete the shutout.
Charlie Blackmon had two hits for Colorado, which welcomed Kris Bryant back from the injured list. Bryant had been on the injured list with a left oblique strain since early June.
He played right field, batted fifth and went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
The Red Sox jumped on Rockies starter Ty Blach (3-6), who took German Marquez’s spot in the rotation after the right-hander landed on the IL on Monday. Jarren Duran was hit by a pitch leading off the game, Devers doubled with two outs and O’Neill crushed his first homer of the game to center field to give Boston a 3-0 lead.
It was more than enough for Criswell (4-4), who scattered five hits and struck out four while walking just one.
The Red Sox padded the lead in the second. With two outs, Jamie Westbrook walked, Duran singled and Refsnyder doubled to the gap in left-center-field to score both runners.
O’Neill added a 465-foot homer to the left field concourse in the third. It was his 20th of the season and the ninth multi-homer game of his career. Yoshida followed with a double to chase Blach, who allowed six runs on seven hits in 2 1/3 innings. Blach walked one and fanned one.
O’Neill came to the plate with the bases loaded in the fourth but struck out to end the inning, then popped out in the sixth with two on and two outs. He flied out leading off the ninth.
Colorado’s best scoring chance came in the sixth when Blackmon and Ezequiel Tovar began the frame with singles. Criswell got Brendan Rodgers to hit into a double play and retired Brenton Doyle on a grounder to get out of the jam.
–Field Level Media
