BOSTON (AP) - Brayan Bello fanned a career-high 11 batters - getting each of his first 10 outs by strikeout - and Wilyer Abreu and Dominic Smith homered on back-to-back pitches in an eight-run second inning Tuesday night to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 12-9.
Rafael Devers bows out of All-Star Game, then helps Red Sox beat A’s 12-9
BOSTON (AP) - Brayan Bello fanned a career-high 11 batters - getting each of his first 10 outs by strikeout - and Wilyer Abreu and Dominic Smith homered on back-to-back pitches in an eight-run second inning Tuesday night to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 12-9.
On the day he was scratched from the All-Star Game with a sore shoulder, Rafael Devers had two hits and a walk, driving in three runs and scoring twice as the Red Sox won for the seventh time in eight games and improved to a season-high 10 games over .500.
Bello (9-5) is the first Red Sox pitcher since at least 1961 - and the first in the majors this year - to record his first 10 outs by strikeout. Even as he struggled in the first inning, when the A's took a 2-0 lead on three hits and a wild pitch, Bello got all three outs on K's.
Bello struck out three more (while allowing two baserunners) in the second, and then struck out the side in a 1-2-3 third inning. He fanned Lawrence Butler for the first out in the fourth, and then with runners on first and second he finally induced a groundout, by Max Schuemann.