PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When the Boston Red Sox made contact, they did some damage.
Rafael Devers and Danny Santana hit homers to back Martin Perez, and the Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies 11-3 Friday night.
Perez (2-2) allowed three runs and five hits, striking out seven in six innings.
The AL East-leading Red Sox have won three in a row. The Phillies lost for the sixth time in eight games to fall one game under .500.
Boston batters struck out 17 times against four pitchers, but still scored 11 runs.
“I didn’t notice the strikeouts because we kept putting up good at-bats,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve been striking out a lot, but we’re scoring runs. The quality of the at-bats are different. We can live with the strikeouts as long we’re scoring.”
Phillies starter Aaron Nola (3-4) gave up five runs — four earned — and seven hits, striking out nine in five innings.
Nola fanned the first two batters in the fifth before running into trouble. Santana blasted a 1-2 pitch out to right to give Boston a 3-2 lead. After Alex Verdugo singled and J.D. Martinez walked, Xander Bogaerts lined a single to left. Third baseman Alec Bohm cut off left fielder Andrew McCutchen’s throw to the plate, even though it appeared there would be a play at home. Bohm’s throw to second base sailed into the outfield, allowing Martinez to score for a 5-2 lead.
Phillies manager Joe Girardi said he thought Bohm should’ve let the ball go through on the throw to the plate and plans to address it.
Bohm had two of Philadelphia’s three errors.
“It’s really frustrating because I believe we’re better than we’re playing,” Girardi said of the team’s shoddy defense.
Hunter Renfroe’s RBI single off Connor Brogdon in the sixth expanded Boston’s lead to…
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