David Ortiz capped off a 3-for-5 night with a two-run blast to right off of Trevor May in the eighth inning, finishing up a night in which the Boston Red Sox routed the Minnesota Twins 13-2.
“I was looking forward to going to Minnesota my last year,” Ortiz told the Pioneer Press. “I already went there, so nothing, man. We’re going through something really good right now. We’re back in first place. There’s a lot of motivation out there.”
“His numbers against us over the years have been impressive,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “I got a glimpse of what he’s done against the Twins in the past.”
Ortiz wasn’t alone in the onslaught. Mookie Betts took the first pitch he saw from Tyler Duffey deep, the first of three runs Boston hung on the Twins starter in the first inning. Another three runs in the third knocked Duffey out of the game after 2.1 innings pitched.
Betts finished 3-for-5. Dustin Pedroia was 5-for-5. Xander Bogaerts was 3-for-4.
“The month of July has been a very good offensive month as we’ve kind of gotten past that stretch in June,” Red Sox manager John Farrell told the Associated Press. “Just great to see that number of quality at-bats.”
Every Twins reliever gave up an earned run on Thursday night: May led with four, Buddy Boshers had two and Michael Tonkin had one.
“It got ugly,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “We haven’t had a game like that in a while.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
