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THEY HAD THE
CHANCE AND BLEW IT
The Red Sox bats explode in a
historic 11-run outburst
July 9, 2024
...
Brayan Bello fanned a career-high 11 batters, getting each of the
first 10 on strikeouts. Wilyer Abreu and Dom Smith meanwhile, homered
on back-to-back pitches in an eight-run second inning to help the Red
Sox beat Oakland, 12 to 9.
Rafael Devrs had two hits and a walk, driving in three runs and
scoring twice as the Sox won for the seventh time in eight games and
improved to a seson-high ten games over .500
Bello became the first pitcher in the expansion era, starting in
1961, to record his first ten outs by strikeouts. Even as he
struggled in the first inning, when the A's jumped out front 2-0, on
three hits and a wild pitch, Bello got all three outs on Ks.
He struck out three more in the second, while allowing two
baserunners and then struck out the side in a 1-2-3 third inning. He
then fanned the first batter in the fourth inning for his 10th
straight punch-out. By that time his teammates led 11-2, when he gave
up a pair of singles and a homer. In all, he allowed five runs on
nine hits and a walk.
Oakland pitcher Joey Estes gave up hits to the first four Sox batters
in the first inning, with the Sox taking a 3-2 lead on Rafael Devers'
two-run single. But it was in the second inning when the Sox opened
the floodgates, scoring eight runs on seven hits, a walk and a hit
batter. It was the first time since 2011 that every member of the
lineup had a least one hit and one run in the first two innings of a
ball game. The Sox last did it in 2003.
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