BOSTON (AP) — Xander Bogaerts kept running, and the suddenly potent Boston Red Sox offense kept scoring.
Bogaerts had four hits, including a Little League home run — a double, with two ill-advised throws that allowed him to score — and the Boston Red Sox got on the board on Monday night with 16 hits and their first win of the season, 11-2 over the Tampa Bay Rays.
After being swept by Baltimore in the opening series, never leading in any of the three games and yet to post a multi-run inning, the Red Sox went ahead 1-0 in the second on a double that was Franchy Cordero’s first hit of the season.
“As an offense, we weren’t doing that much in the first couple of games. Him giving us that first RBI is one that we needed — to score first,” Bogaerts said. “That was key for us, to get everything going in a positive direction.”
The Red Sox added two in the fourth and two in the fifth, when the Rays threw the ball around until Bogaerts sauntered home. Boston scored two more in the sixth and four in the eighth, when J.D. Martinez banged a three-run homer halfway up the Pesky Pole for the team’s first home run of the season.
Cordero, Alex Verdugo and Hunter Renfroe all had two hits apiece after coming into the game batting .000. Nick Pivetta (1-0) gave up two hits in five shutout innings, walking four and striking out four to end the Rays’ eight-game winning streak at Fenway Park.
“That’s always a great feeling, when you go out and you know you’ve got a … lead and it bumps up from there,” Pivetta said. “That’s really huge, everybody coming around, and I’m just excited to see where it goes from here.”
Tampa Bay got three singles in the eighth before Darwinzon Hernandez walked Manuel Margot and pinch-hitter Yandy Díaz with the bases loaded to make…
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