Jarren Duran laced a go-ahead two-run homer, Garrett Crochet won his third straight start, and the Boston Red Sox continued their mastery of Tampa Bay with their seventh consecutive win over the Rays, 11-7, on Friday night.
Duran went 2-for-6 and scored twice as the Red Sox (84-70) moved to 9-2 against Tampa Bay (75-79) with the series-opening victory.
Ceddanne Rafaela was 4-for-5 with a double, two runs and an RBI. Alex Bregman had a solo homer and walked twice. Nate Eaton was 2-for-4 with two runs, an RBI and a stolen base.
Over six innings, Crochet (17-5) allowed three runs on four hits with nine strikeouts and three walks. The left-hander improved to 13-1 in his past 19 starts. He is one win behind Major League leader Max Fried, who picked up his 18th win on Thursday.
For Tampa Bay (75-79), Everson Pereira hit a grand slam, and Yandy Diaz was 3-for-4 with a homer, double, two runs, an RBI and a walk. Carson Williams hit a solo homer for the second straight game.
Starter Drew Rasmussen went three innings and allowed two runs on four hits. He had two strikeouts and a walk.
After Rasmussen pitched out of two-out, two-on trouble in the first inning, Nick Fortes put the home side up with a single up the middle to score Diaz with two outs.
However, Eaton matched it in the second by blazing the bases all the way from first on Nathaniel Lowe’s single to center. Williams then gave the Rays their second lead in the bottom half by taking Crochet deep.
Bregman jumped on a hanging curve from Rasmussen for his 18th homer to left in the third, and the offense against the two ace pitchers continued as Diaz led off the bottom half with a solo blast to right, his 25th.
Following a leadoff single by Rafaela in the seventh, Duran jumped on a Garrett Cleavinger (1-6) sinker and drove it 385 feet to right for Boston’s first lead of the night.
In a 13-batter eighth, the visitors used a pair of errors to score seven times for an 11-3 lead, despite producing only four hits.
Pereira slugged a two-out grand slam to left in the ninth.
