ST. PETERSBURG – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Wilyer Abreu and Connor Wong each drove in a pair of runs as the Red Sox completed a three-game sweep of the host Tampa Bay Rays with an 8-5 win on Wednesday.
Rob Refsnyder’s leadoff single was the lone Boston hit through four innings against Tampa Bay starter Ryan Pepiot, but a five-run, five-hit fifth inning against three pitchers flipped the script of the game for good.
Abreu hit a two-run home run in the big inning. Refsnyder matched him with a 2-for-4 performance. Ceddanne Rafaela crossed the plate twice.
Brayan Bello (5-2) struck out six across six innings of four-hit, three-run ball to earn the win for the Red Sox, who secured their first road sweep of the Rays since April 2019.
Tampa Bay’s Jose Caballero and Richie Palacios each had two hits and scored a run.
Caballero and Yandy Diaz each drove in two.
A walk and a hit batter set the table for Rafaela’s ground-ball single to left to put the Red Sox on the board in the fifth and end the day of Pepiot, who was charged with three runs on two hits and four walks over the first four-plus innings.
Pepiot’s ledger grew with Richard Lovelady (0-2) on in relief after Wilyer Abreu singled and Connor Wong knocked a two-run base hit to left that tied the game.