BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Rafael Devers hit a two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning to propel the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Washington Nationals on Saturday.
Devers’ line-drive double hit the base of the wall in left field and broke a 2-2 tie by driving in Romy Gonzalez and Tyler O’Neill. Gonzalez reached on a fielder’s choice before O’Neill was walked intentionally. Devers had two of Boston’s six hits.
Wilyer Abreu hit his fourth home run of the season for Boston, which ended a three-game losing streak. The Red Sox were 2 for 29 with runners in scoring position during those three losses.
Chris Martin (2-1) pitched a scoreless eighth inning to earn the win. Kenley Jansen struck out two of three batters he faced in the ninth to record his sixth save.
Reliever Robert Garcia (0-2), who surrendered the double to Devers, took the loss.
Joey Meneses and Eddie Rosario each homered for Washington.
Boston starting pitcher Cooper Criswell went five innings. He allowed two runs on three hits, walked one and recorded a career-high nine strikeouts. It was a 2-2 game when he exited.
Washington’s Jake Irvin gave up two runs on four hits in seven innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter.
Meneses opened the scoring by leading off the second with a solo home run, his first home run of the season.
The Red Sox tied the game at 1 on Abreu’s home run in the third.
After Rosario homered on a ball that hit the Carlton Fisk pole in left field to give Washington a 2-1 lead in the fifth, Boston pulled even when Jarren Duran’s two-out double drove in David Hamilton to make it a 2-2 game in the bottom half of the inning. Rosario’s homer was his fourth of the season.
CJ Abrams had two of Washington’s four hits.
-Field Level Media