Ceddanne Rafaela went 4-for-4 with seven RBI while Masataka Yoshida also had four hits and three runs scored as the host Boston Red Sox cruised past the Chicago Cubs 17-0 on Saturday.
The Red Sox totaled a season-high 21 hits while scoring six runs in both the fifth and eighth innings.
Tyler O’Neill added a 3-for-5 performance including a home run and two RBI, and Bobby Dalbec drove in three runs and scored two more.
Justin Slaten (2-0) earned the win in relief, pitching 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth.
Yan Gomes had two of Chicago’s five hits.
Boston starter Josh Winckowski stranded two baserunners to post a first-inning zero and send his offense up to the plate. O’Neill staked the Red Sox to a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer over the Green Monster in the home team’s third batter against Chicago’s Ben Brown (0-1).
Jarren Duran lined a leadoff double to left field, setting up O’Neill for his ninth round-tripper of the season. Each of his first eight were solo shots.
The Cubs drove up Winckowski’s pitch count to 52 pitches through three innings, but he left without allowing a run on only three hits.
In the fourth, Rafaela’s sacrifice fly scored Yoshida following a leadoff single. Brown finished his day allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and no walks across 3 2/3 innings.
The Red Sox broke the game open in a six-run fifth. O’Neill began it with a high wall-ball double in center, advanced on a wild pitch and came in on Wilyer Abreu’s single.
Cubs reliever Luke Little hit two of the next three batters before Dalbec’s ground-ball single deflected off the pitcher, allowing Abreu to score.
After Colten Brewer relieved Little, Rafaela ripped a three-run double deep into the left-field corner, then stole third and scored on Duran’s RBI grounder.
Rafaela highlighted his monster day with a two-run homer in the seventh inning for his second this season. Yoshida led off the inning with a single and followed the 23-year-old across the plate for an 11-0 advantage.
Boston tagged Chicago position players Matt Mervis and Patrick Wisdom for six runs in the eighth. Yoshida doubled to score O’Neill, beginning a stretch of four straight RBI hits. A David Hamilton single and doubles by Dalbec and Rafaela followed.
Two batters later, Boston’s Pablo Reyes — who concluded the game on the mound himself — continued the busy inning with another RBI knock.
–Field Level Media