Christian Arroyo hit a long pinch-hit grand slam in the seventh inning and the visiting Boston Red Sox beat the Atlanta Braves 10-8 on Wednesday to sweep the two-game interleague series.
Arroyo connected on 1-2 cutter from reliever A.J. Minter to blast a 467-foot homer into the left field stands. It was Arroyo's first pinch-hit homer (1-for-11 career as pinch hitter entering the game) and the first grand slam of his career.
The rally started against Shane Greene (0-1), who allowed a double to Xander Bogaerts and walked Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez. With two outs, the Braves called on Minter, who permitted his second homer of the season and suffered his fifth blown save.
The winning pitcher was Yacksel Rios (1-0), who retired the only batter he faced in his Boston debut.
Adam Ottavino earned his fourth save despite allowing a run. Ronald Acuna Jr. hit an RBI double but was thrown out at third for the second out in the ninth.
Neither starting pitcher was around for the decision. Boston's Garrett Richards couldn't hold a pair of three-run leads and left after four-plus innings. He gave up six runs (four earned) on seven hits, with one walk and three strikeouts.
Atlanta's Ian Anderson worked a wobbly four innings and allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with six strikeouts.
The Red Sox got ahead quickly on Hunter Renfroe's two-run single in the first inning.
The Braves got a run back in the third on Abraham Almonte's sacrifice fly, but the Red Sox tacked on two runs in the fourth on Bobby Dalbec's RBI single and Richards' double, the first hit and RBI of his career.
Atlanta scored twice in the fourth on Ender Inciarte's run-scoring grounder and an RBI single by Freddie Freeman.
Boston took a 6-3 lead in the fifth on a Bogaerts' RBI double and Devers' single against reliever Kyle Muller, only to have Atlanta knot it up on Dansby Swanson's three-run homer, his 11th, in the bottom half of the inning.
The Braves took a 7-6 lead in the sixth on Freeman's 16th home run.
--Field Level Media
Boston | Atlanta | |
Garrett Richards | Player | Ian Anderson |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
4.0 | IP | 4.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 5 |
7 | Hits | 7 |
9.00 | ERA | 9.00 |
Boston | Atlanta | |
Xander Bogaerts | Player | Ronald Acuna Jr. |
3 | Hits | 3 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 5 |
.600 | Avg | .600 |