BOSTON (AP) — Willson Contreras and Mickey Gasper homered, all nine Boston starters drove in at least one, and the Red Sox dismantled the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-1 on Monday night in the first game of a three-game series.
Boston, which scored in six straight innings, did not have a strikeout in the game and finished with 16 hits to maintain a six-game lead for the second AL wild card.
Brayan Bello (5-6) worked 4 2/3 innings of relief, striking out three
and allowing a run on three hits. Bello has a 0.85 ERA in 11 relief appearances (52 2/3 innings) this season.
Wyatt Olds made his major league debut for Boston and got his first career strikeout.
Boston jumped to a 4-0 lead after four innings as Eli White and Caleb Durbin drove in runs with singles, while Nick Sogard and Ceddanne Rafaela added RBI doubles.
Boston stretched its lead to 7-0 in the fifth on Contreras’ 342-foot homer, Andruw Monasterio’s sacrifice fly and Gasper’s RBI groundout.
Arizona got on the board with Geraldo Perdomo’s sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Wilyer Abreu and Adley Rutschman answered with RBI hits before Gasper’s first Red Sox homer sneaked around Pesky's Pole in the seventh and Abreu hit an RBI single.
Mitch Bratt (1-2) pitched three innings of three-run ball for Arizona. Zack Littell gave up the final eight runs on 11 hits without a strikeout.
Diamondbacks' RHP Merrill Kelly (8-10, 5.11 ERA) squares off against Red Sox LHP Ranger Suárez (4-3, 3.25) in game two of the series on Tuesday.
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