In a rollercoaster game Tuesday the Red Sox improved to 6-2, beating the Washington Nationals and sealing a win in their first three series of the season for the first time since 1952.
The Red Sox need wins in their next two games to match their club record of 8 wins in their first ten games, which also happened in 1918, 1920, and 1952.
Justin Masterson, in his first start at Fenway with the Red Sox since July 29, 2009, seemed rocky at first before settling in. Staked to a 5-1 run lead, however, Masterson went on to allow 6 more, giving the Nationals a lead and knocking Masterson from the game. In all, Masterson was charged with 7 earned runs Tuesday. He had never allowed more than 6 earned runs in his first stint with Boston (2008-9, 67 appearances).
Down 7-5 in the 7th inning Boston rallied for 3 runs without the benefit of a hit. The last time the Red Sox scored that many runs without a hit was in the 7th inning on August 25, 2001 playing against the Rangers.
Red Sox Nation held its collective breath for appearances by Alexi Ogando and Edward Mujica, though together they allowed just one hit and no runs over 2.2 innings of work. Junichi Tazawa was then followed by Koji Uehara, in his first appearance of the season. It was good to see Uehara earn the save with 2 strikeouts in a perfect 9th inning. In all Red Sox relievers allowed 0 runs and no walks over 4.1 IP.
Boston averaging 6.4 runs per game
Dustin Pedroia, always solid in Interleague games, collected his 3rd home run of the season in Game 8. It took him until his 59th game of 2014 to reach that milestone.
Outstanding utility man Brock Holt started at shortstop for Xander Bogaerts, who had undergone an MRI on his sore knee earlier in the day. Holt went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Holt has not had an error in 13 career games at short. Later came good news as doctors found no damage to Bogaerts’ knee and cleared him to play.
The Nationals have allowed 8+ runs in two straight games for the first time since August 10-11, 2010.
With the come-from-behind win the Red Sox have improved to 143-82 (.636) in Interleague games since 2003, the best such record in baseball in that time.