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Hanley Ramirez's 468 ft monster HR blast |
ON THIS DATE (May 10, 2016) ... A’s manager, Bob Melvin, burned through four relievers, unable to find one to douse a scorching Red Sox lineup. The Sox were using the Green Monster for target practice and treating A’s starter, Sean Manaea, like a batting practice pitcher, during a 13-5 rout. It started when Mookie Betts yanked one of Manaea’s sliders into the Monster seats for a leadoff home run in the first. Hanley Ramirez followed three batters later by launching a rocket off the light tower in left-center. Ramirez sent the ball sailing an estimated 468 feet. The only blast that traveled farther this year was a 475-foot blast by Giancarlo Stanton. After putting up a 15 hits yesterday, the Sox matched their season high with 16 tonight, without David Ortiz, who got the night off. The Sox hung five runs on Manaea in a third inning where even the outs were loud. So for the second straight night, Melvin found himself trying to stop a runaway offensive freight train, and couldn’t come up with any answers. Manaea, who was making his third career start, was only the fifth lefty the Sox have seen this season, and they still managed to put up 10-plus hits for the 20th time this season. In Ortiz’s place, Ramirez went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. His first-inning blast gave the Sox 11 straight games with at least one homer. After going for three hits Monday, Travis Shaw was 3 for 4 with five RBIs. Chris Young went 3 for 4 with an RBI. Jackie Bradley extended his career-long hitting streak to 16 games (the longest active streak in the majors) with a 2-for-4 night. The overflow of offense made it a pressure-free home debut for Sean O’Sullivan, who went six innings, allowing four runs on 12 hits with three strikeouts in his first start in a Sox uniform. O’Sullivan got through the first five innings cleanly, only running into trouble in the second inning when he gave up singles to Billy Butler and Marcus Semien. But Bradley made sure it didn’t cost him, fielding a two-out line drive single from Chris Coghlan and firing a dart from center to gun down Butler at the plate and keep the A’s off the board. With more than enough runs to work with, O’Sullivan picked up his first win of the season. In May alone, the Sox have been a force with 98 hits and 57 runs. Coming into this game, the Sox were hitting .307 since April 20 with an .871 on-base percentage and a .501 slugging percentage (all major-league bests). They’ve won each of the last six meetings with the A’s, eight of their last 11 overall, moved to seven games over .500 for the first time since 2013, and sit atop the AL East, tied with the Orioles. The Sox offense has pumped out at least 10 hits in 20 of their first 33 games. The last team in the majors to crank out as many in the same stretch was the 2008 Sox.
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