BOSTON (AP) — Pablo Sandoval was happy to be back at Fenway Park for the first time since his disastrous tenure with the Red Sox.
It was the Boston fans who weren’t so happy to see him.
Booed for every at-bat, Sandoval delivered three hits and Charlie Morton retired the last 13 Red Sox he faced to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 3-1 victory over Boston on Tuesday night.
“It’s one of the things I was looking forward to,” said Sandoval, who was released by the Red Sox in 2017, midway through his five-year, $95 million contract.
“Great fan support, great organization,” he said. “Things don’t go well some time.”
Morton (3-2) allowed six of the first eight Boston batters to reach base, loading the bases in the first with nobody out and giving up a leadoff triple in the second. But the Red Sox managed only one run in the first two innings, and Morton retired 13 straight batters after Xander Bogaerts’ third-inning single.
“After the first inning, I was hoping he’d go five,” Braves manger Brian Snitker said. “First couple innings, he was struggling a little bit. Then he got in that rhythm — it was real encouraging to see him go seven.”
In all, Morton gave up one unearned run on three hits, striking out nine and walking two in seven innings for his first victory in a month. Freddie Freeman added two hits for the Braves, who won their fourth straight game to improve to .500.
Sandoval won three titles with the San Francisco Giants and was the 2012 World Series MVP before he signed with Boston for the 2015 season. But he played in just 161 games, batting .237 with 14 homers in parts of three seasons, before he was released.
He returned to San Francisco before joining the Braves at the end of last season.
Sandoval lined one up the…
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