Adrian Beltre hit two homers and drove in six runs to lead the Boston Red Sox to an 11-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday night.
Beltre hit a solo homer in the second inning to open the scoring and added a three-run shot in the third inning as the Red Sox became the first team to sweep a series from Tampa Bay this season.
Beltre finished with four hits, including a two-run triple that just missed going out of the park in the ninth inning as Boston blew the game open with five runs.
The Red Sox have won five straight and moved to 5.5 games behind the division-leading Rays.
John Lackey (5-3) notched the win allowing two runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. He fanned just one and walked four.
Matt Garza (5-3), who entered the game with a lifetime mark of 6-2 against Boston, took the loss in surrendering six runs in five innings.
David Ortiz continued his torrid pace in the month of May. He smacked his ninth homer of the month, his 10th of the season, in the fifth inning with a runner on.
Boston | Tampa Bay | |
John Lackey | Player | Matt Garza |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.1 | IP | 5.0 |
1 | Strikeouts | 3 |
8 | Hits | 5 |
2.84 | ERA | 10.80 |
Boston | Tampa Bay | |
Adrian Beltre | Player | Hank Blalock |
4 | Hits | 2 |
6 | RBI | 0 |
2 | HR | 0 |
12 | TB | 2 |
.800 | Avg | .500 |