BOSTON — Xander Bogaerts had three hits, Hanley Ramirez, Sandy Leon and Jackie Bradley Jr. all added two RBIs and the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-4 on Tuesday night.
Boston blew the game open courtesy of a wild fifth inning, tallying eight hits and eight runs against Cardinals starter Mike Leake and reliever Matt Bowman. It came an inning after the Red Sox turned their first triple play in six years .
The Red Sox have won 11 of their last 13.
Rick Porcello (7-14) was mostly able to cruise, giving up eight hits and three runs over seven innings to pick up the victory. He has won his past three starts after going winless for more than a month.
Leake (7-11) got the loss and has failed to win in his last four starts. He has yielded 28 hits and 15 earned runs in 15 1/3 innings over his last three outings.
Nearly everyone had a hand in the Red Sox's offensive onslaught in the fifth.
Eduardo Nunez and Mookie Betts reached on consecutive singles with one out, then Leake loaded the bases by hitting Andrew Benintendi's left knee with a pitch. Benintendi needed a few moments to shake off the pain before jogging to first to load the bases for Ramirez. He then promptly doubled off the Green Monster to drive in Nunez and Betts.
Leake intentionally walked rookie Rafael Devers, loading the bases once again, and Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland followed with RBI singles to put Boston up 5-0.
Bowman replaced Leake after Moreland's single and allowed a two-run double by Leon, Boston's 10th hit of the game and sixth in the inning, bringing up Bradley for the second time in the inning.
Bradley, whose fly out to left remained the only out of the inning, singled to right bringing in two more runs and Nunez followed with his second single of the inning.
Betts popped out to first for the second out, ending a run of 10 straight batters reaching base.
YANKEES 5, METS 4 Sonny Gray outpitched Jacob deGrom, Jacoby Ellsbury and Gary Sanchez homered, and the New York Yankees held off the Mets to sweep both Subway Series games in the Bronx. Despite another late stumble by closer Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees kept the Empire State Building lit up in pinstripes with the win. The Mets will try to change the color scheme to their shading when the rivalry now shifts to Citi Field for two games beginning tonight.
ASTROS 9, DIAMONDBACKS 4 The Houston Astros had six extra-base hits in the first four innings, building a big enough lead to hold off the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Astros managed only four hits over the last five innings, but one was Max Stassi’s solo home run in the ninth. Houston jumped to an 8-0 lead in the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Brad Peacock couldn’t get out of the bottom of the fifth, so Francis Martes (5-2) came on and struck out all four batters he faced in 1 1/3 innings for the victory.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
RANGERS 10, TIGERS 4 Joey Gallo and Mike Napoli hit back-to-back homers off Justin Verlander, and the Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers, ending the former AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner’s three-game winning streak. The Rangers had just gone ahead 2-1 on Nomar Mazara’s RBI single in the fourth inning when Gallo hit his 34th homer, a towering drive that landed in the second deck of seats in right-center above the Texas bullpen and was estimated at 459 feet.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
REDS 2, CUBS 1 Scooter Gennett’s sacrifice fly drove in Joey Votto from third to break a scoreless tie in the eighth, and Billy Hamilton singled in a run in the ninth as the Cincinnati Reds edged the Chicago Cubs. After Votto walked for the third time and advanced to third on Adam Duvall’s single off reliever Pedro Strop (3-3), Gennett smacked a line drive to right that Jason Heyward caught on the run.