Mariners fall below .500 for first time this season after 14-1 loss to Red Sox
BOSTON – The Red Sox have been among baseball’s hottest-hitting teams in May. The surge of offense has put the defending World Series champions above .500 for the first time this season.
Mitch Moreland hit a three-run home run, Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi each added a solo homer, and Boston rolled to a 14-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox (20-19) have won nine of 11, scoring 80 runs during the stretch and outscoring opponents 66-25 this month. Seven of their runs Friday came with two outs.
“I know it’s hard to do, but good teams do that. We really believe we have a good team,” manager Alex Cora said. “I feel like we’re getting closer to who we are.”
Seattle (20-21) lost for the 10th time in 12 games and is under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2017 season. The club started this year 13-2.
Eduardo Rodriguez (4-2) pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out five to pick up his third win in four starts. It was the first time he lasted seven innings in a start since Sept. 23, 2017, at Cincinnati. The Red Sox have won each of Rodriguez’s past six starts.
“I had everything working tonight,” Rodriguez said. “It’s the first time I went seven innings in, like, two years, so it’s something I’m having in my mind every time I go out there and see my pitch count. But [tonight] was pretty good.”
Rookie Erik Swanson (1-4) took the loss, allowing seven hits and seven runs over 4 2/3 innings.
“It is a learning process for him,” said bench coach Manny Acta, filling in for manager Scott Servais, who was attending his daughter’s graduation. “We like him a lot. He had good stuff at the beginning, but they caught up to him.”
It marked the latest rough outing for a Mariners pitching staff that has given up 11 or more runs four times in 12 games.
The Red Sox scored all the runs they needed in the third.
Jackie Bradley Jr. led off with a double down the left-field line and scored on Mookie Betts’ two-out single up the middle.
J.D. Martinez moved Betts over to third base with a single, and Moreland cleared the bases with his looping blast that landed just over Boston’s bullpen in center. It was Moreland’s 11th home run of the season.
Devers led off the fourth with a line-drive homer over the Seattle bullpen in right field. Moreland added an RBI double in the fifth.
Boston scored in all but two innings.
Cora said getting back to .500 was just the first goal the team had after starting the season 2-8.
“We did it without playing our best baseball,” he said. “I think we still can do better.”
Cora: ‘Back to baseball’
Cora, who is from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, said there was no uneasiness in the clubhouse a day after he and several members of the team decided not to attend a celebration at the White House for Boston’s World Series championship.
“That’s the route we decided, and we respect everything and we’re fine with it. Back to baseball today,” Cora said. “In my world, I decided not to go for my reasons. I know the government has helped. We still have a long way to go. That’s our reality.”