Boston
Xander Bogaerts and Chris Young had RBI singles for the Red Sox, who were blanked Tuesday, snapping a 63-game non-shutout streak at home.
With Boston having emptied its bullpen by using six relievers after Joe Kelly left Tuesday’s game in the first with a right shoulder impingement, Porcello (3-0) allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings, struck out nine and walked one.
He held the Rays scoreless on two hits through five innings while the Red Sox opened a 6-0 lead against Chris Archer (0-4). Porcello gave up Corey Dickerson’s two-run homer in the sixth.
Archer gave up six runs and eight hits in 4 innings as the Rays’ three-game winning streak ended. He is 0-7 with a 6.39 ERA in his last 10 starts.
After being held to one hit the 3-0, 10-inning loss, the Red Sox scored three runs before Archer got an out. Bogaerts singled in a run, and Ortiz followed with a two-run double into the left-center gap.
Boston made it 5-0 in the second when Betts homered off a light stanchion above the Green Monster.
Ortiz’s RBI double in the fifth made it 6-0. But it may have been a costly trip from first for Bogaerts, who left the after scoring due to left quadriceps tightness.
Boston
Kelly faced just four batters in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss in 10 innings to Tampa Bay. He walked two and left after the training staff visited the mound for the second time in the first inning. Kelly underwent an MRI on Wednesday. Manager John Farrell said it’s too early to project how long he’d be out.
“Based on the MRI, it reveals the impingement,” Farrell said. “There’s no changes to the structure to the MRI that was taken last September, and now we’ve got to let it quiet down.”
He was shut down in mid-September last season with tightness in the shoulder and didn’t pitch the remainder of the year.
The club recalled right-hander Noe Ramirez and selected right-hander William Cuevas from Triple-A Pawtucket to add some bullpen depth.
To make room, infielder Marco Hernandez was optioned to Pawtucket.
In addition, to make room on the 40-man roster for Cuevas, left-hander Edwin Escobar was designated for assignment.
