Boston Buries Arizona 11-1, Six Different Red Sox Drive In Runs
Boston dismantled Arizona 11-1 on August 17, spreading the damage across six different RBI contributors in a game that was never close. The win probability swung from 60% to 70% on the very first Boston run — and the Red Sox never looked back.
The story of the night was Boston's relentless, inning-by-inning construction of a lead that Arizona never had a credible answer for. It started in the second, when White singled to left to score Durbin — that single swing pushed Boston's win probability from 60% to 70% — and Sogard immediately doubled to center to score White, making it 2-0 before Arizona could blink. The Red Sox added another in the third when Durbin singled to right to score Contreras, then Rafaela doubled to right to score Sogard in the fourth. By the time the fifth inning arrived, Boston was already operating in blowout mode: Contreras launched a 342-foot homer to left to make it 5-0, Monasterio followed with a sacrifice fly to score Rutschman, and Gasper grounded out to second — a productive out that scored Durbin and pushed the lead to 7-0.
Arizona's lone moment of life came in the sixth, when Perdomo hit a sacrifice fly to score Vargas and put the Diamondbacks on the board at 7-1. It looks like that was as close as they were ever going to get. Boston answered immediately in the same inning: Abreu singled to right to score Rafaela, then Rutschman doubled to left to score Abreu, and just like that it was 9-1. The seventh inning was the finishing touch — Gasper went deep to right for 343 feet to make it 10-1, and Abreu singled to center to score Rafaela for the final margin of 11-1.
On the mound, Brayan Bello worked 4.2 innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 earned run with 3 strikeouts — serviceable enough given the run support, though the bullpen behind him was sharper. Wyatt Olds threw a clean inning with 2 strikeouts, Alec Gamboa followed with 1.1 hitless innings and a strikeout, and Greg Weissert closed things out with a scoreless frame. The offensive depth here is what stands out: Rafaela went 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored, Durbin went 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored, Contreras and Gasper each homered, and Abreu drove in 2. This appears to be a Boston lineup that can hurt you from top to bottom on any given night — and on this one, it did exactly that.