SAN FRANCISCO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Sox first baseman Triston Casas doubled, homered and drove in two runs, reliever Josh Winckowski pitched out of a seventh-inning jam to protect a one-run lead and the Boston Red Sox opened a three-game road inter-league series with a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants Friday night.
Boston OF Rob Refsnyder drove in a key run with a pinch-hit single and Sox starter Kutter Crawford (5-5) struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings for the Red Sox, who were opening a six-game West Coast swing.
Casas produced all the game’s scoring in the first five innings with a second-inning double that plated Adam Duvall, who also had doubled, and a fifth-inning solo homer, his 16th of the season.
The Giants got one back in the sixth when Marco Luciano recorded his first big-league hit, a single off third baseman Rafael Devers’ glove, and scored his first big-league run on a single by Michael Conforto.
Crawford was pulled after 5 2/3 innings, having allowed just one run and three hits. He walked one to complement his seven strikeouts.
Down 2-1, the Giants got back-to-back singles from J.D. Davis and Patrick Bailey to open the seventh, but Winckowski retired the next three batters, including a pair of strikeouts after Davis, the potential tying run, had reached third with one out.
Refsnyder’s hit came in the top of the eighth, scoring Connor Wong, who had singled, to produce what turned out to be the difference-making run.
Giants starter Logan Webb (8-9) was lifted one out into the eighth, charged with all three Boston runs on six hits. He walked none and struck out four.
San Francisco immediately got back within a run when Joc Pederson smacked his 11th homer of the year against Chris Martin leading off the last of the eighth. But Martin retired the next three batters he faced to close out the inning, before Kenley Jansen threw a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his 23rd save.