Baseball

Adam Duvall, Masataka Yoshida Fuel Red Sox Past Orioles

AP Photo/Steven Senne
Boston Red Sox’s Masataka Yoshida, right, celebrates with Enrique Hernandez (5) after scoring on a single by Alex Verdugo during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, April 2, 2023, in Boston.

Field Level Media / Reuters

10:46 JST, April 3, 2023

Adam Duvall and Masataka Yoshida combined for five hits, four RBIs and five runs as the host Boston Red Sox recorded a 9-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

Duvall went 3-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs, while Yoshida had a pair of hits, two RBIs and three runs.

Enrique Hernandez (2-for-4) hit his second home run of the season in the second inning. Rafael Devers also had two of Boston’s 14 hits.

Tanner Houck (1-0) worked five innings of three-run ball with five strikeouts in his first start for Boston.

Two of Houck’s five hits allowed were home runs by Baltimore’s Adam Frazier (3-for-4, two RBIs, two runs) and Cedric Mullins (2-for-5, run, three RBIs).

Baltimore starter Cole Irvin (0-1) allowed six runs on eight hits and struck out four across four innings.

The Red Sox played with a quick lead, loading the bases in the first inning before Yoshida brought Rob Refsnyder home on a groundout.

Hernandez doubled the Boston lead an inning later, ripping a leadoff solo homer over the Green Monster.

In the third, Duvall lined a two-out double to left and scored after Alex Verdugo followed with a single into center in the next at-bat.

Houck allowed just two hits and faced the minimum twice over the first four innings, but two swings tied the game for Baltimore in the fifth.

After Austin Hays grounded a one-out single into center, Frazier’s two-run homer into the right-field bullpen made it 3-2.

Mullins knotted the score with his second homer of the series, a two-out, solo shot to right.

The Red Sox wasted little time jumping back on top as Yoshida’s bloop single marked the third straight hit, driving in a run in the last of the fifth.

Reliever Bryan Baker worked with two runners, Justin Turner and Yoshida, in scoring position after a wild pitch. Both scored on Duvall’s single lined to left.

In the seventh, Mullins ripped a two-run single through the middle to cut the Baltimore deficit to 6-5.

After Yoshida and Duvall logged consecutive hits to begin the bottom half, Triston Casas and Hernandez each drove in a key insurance run with knocks to right.

Verdugo lined an eighth-inning single to right to give the Sox a 9-5 lead.