Roman Anthony homered and had three RBIs, Jahmai Jones went deep and the Boston Red Sox cooled off the first-place Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-2 victory on Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Red Sox (84-70) opened their final road series of the regular season by scoring all of their runs in the first three innings to win for the second consecutive night.
Anthony went 2-for-5, while Caleb Durbin was 2-for-3 as the team produced nine hits.
Starting pitcher Ranger Suarez (8-4) fought control issues but went 5 2/3 innings in earning the win. He allowed one run on three hits while striking out five and walking five.
Junior Caminero doubled, walked twice and drove in a run for Tampa Bay (93-60), but the American League’s top club had only five hits, was a brutal 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and had its six-game winning streak snapped.
Starter Ian Seymour (9-7) was hit hard in the first two innings and finished by allowing four runs on seven hits in five frames. He whiffed five and walked two.
On the third pitch of the game, leadoff hitter Anthony crushed a Statcast-estimated 438-foot blast to center field. It was the left fielder’s fifth homer.
Caminero’s RBI groundout tied it in the bottom half, but Anthony did more damage by ripping a two-out single to right for a 3-1 lead in the second.
Jones made it 4-1 leading off the third by lining Seymour’s changeup out to left for his sixth homer.
Suarez got out of a slight jam in the third after Caminero walked and Ryan Vilade singled, but he retired red-hot Chandler Simpson and Jonny DeLuca to maintain the three-run lead.
The home club put together a strong threat in the sixth after Wyatt Olds relieved Suarez and issued two walks to fill the bases with two outs. However, he battled back in the count against pinch hitter Jake Fraley and struck him out.
In the ninth, Jonathan Aranda’s groundout scored a run, but Erik Miller got Simpson to ground out to second with the bases loaded for his fifth save.
