Indians get season-high 18 hits, beat Red Sox 14-9
BOSTON (AP) — Carlos Santana homered and hit Cleveland’s first triple of the season, Greg Allen added a pair of three-baggers and the Indians pounded out a season-high 18 hits in a 14-9 win over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night.
Santana, who finished a single shy of the cycle, was 3 for 4 with five RBIs as Cleveland matched its season best for runs.
Jose Ramirez had two doubles and two RBIs. Allen and Kevin Plawecki also drove in two runs apiece for the Indians, who won two of three against the World Series champions in Boston.
The Indians, shut out over the first seven innings Tuesday night before rallying with seven runs over the last two for a 7-5 win, scored at least once in each of the first seven innings Wednesday.
Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi and Xander Bogaerts homered for Boston. The Red Sox scored three in the eighth, two on Bogaerts’ 10th home run of the season, to pull to 14-9 and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth before the Indians called on Brad Hand to close it out for his 15th save.
Shane Bieber (4-2) got the win despite allowing six runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out six.
Ryan Weber (1-1) took the loss.
Plawecki’s RBI double in the fifth made it 8-6. Ramirez broke it open in the sixth with a two-run double and the Indians added four more in the seventh, two on a double by Santana.
Betts pulled Boston to 2-1 in the first on his ninth homer, but in the top of the second couldn’t quite reach a sinking liner by Plawecki that dropped for an RBI single.
Santana hit a two-out homer, his 10th, to make it 7-3, but Boston got three runs in the fourth on Bradley’s solo homer and a two-run shot by Benintendi.
Weber gave up seven runs and eight hits in four innings.
TAKE THREE
The Indians entered without a triple through the first 54 games of the season but had two before the end of the third inning. Santana got the first, putting Cleveland up 1-0 in the first on a drive off the base of the wall in center.
Allen drove in two more in the third on a line drive to the corner in right for another triple that gave the Indians a 6-3 lead.
Allen got his second triple of the night when he led off the seventh with another drive to the right field corner. He scored on a single by Francisco Lindor to make it 11-6 and Santana added a two-run double. Needing just a single to hit for the cycle, Santana struck out in the ninth.
HITMEN
Cleveland’s previous season high for hits was 14, which the Indians had done three times before Wednesday’s outburst. The Indians got at least one hit from every player in the lineup except Leonys Martin, who went 0 for 4 but did reach on a walk.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Indians: Martin, in center field, and 2B Jason Kipnis were back in the lineup after getting a night off Tuesday.
Red Sox: Placed 1B Mitch Moreland (lower back strain) on the 10-day IL, retroactive to Sunday. . Optioned RHP Travis Lakins to Triple-A Pawtucket and recalled RHP Colten Brewer and LHP Josh Taylor from Pawtucket. Taylor started the fifth, making his major league debut, and allowed one run on two hits in his only inning of work.
UP NEXT
Indians: Carlos Carrasco (4-5, 4.60 ERA) starts Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series at Chicago against White Sox LHP Manny Banuelos (2-4, 7.71).
Red Sox: LHP Chris Sale (1-6, 4.19) faces New York LHP J.A. Happ (4-3, 5.09) as Boston begins a four-game set Thursday night against the first-place Yankees in the Bronx.
