The Boston Red Sox sent out their ace of the staff, Brayan Bello, on Tuesday to help earn a series win over the Oakland Athletics, and they accomplished that task with a 5-4 victory in extra innings.
Bello struggled in this one, going five innings and giving up five hits and four earned runs (all coming on two, two-run home runs by JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers).
Luckily, Boston's bullpen shut it down from there, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out nine.
Kenley Jansen finished the ninth with Josh Winckowski closing it out by pitching both the 10th and the 11th to earn the win. Outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela helped out his pitching staff by making an impressive play in extra innings to keep Oakland from bringing any runners home on a one-out ball hit to deep center.
The Red Sox offense was potent once again, as outfielder Jarren Duran (2-for-3) drove in one, shortstop Trevor Story (3-for-5) drove in two and infielder Pablo Reyes (1-for-3) drove in another.
Bobby Dalbec, who was inserted into the lineup with Mastaka Yoshida getting a day off, continued his struggles in the regular season, striking out in only two at-bats and getting replaced by Wilyer Abreu.
The two teams will play the final game of the series on Wednesday with Nick Pivetta set to take on Ross Stripling. A win for Alex Cora's club would solidify their first series sweep of the season.
