PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Alec Bohm delivered again in the clutch for the Phillies.
Bohm hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning to rally the Philadelphia Phillies over the Boston Red Sox 6-5 on Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader.
Bohm continued his knack for clutch hits, coming through with Philadelphia down to its last strike. The rookie drove in four runs with three hits, including his winner off Matt Barnes (1-3) as the Phillies compete for their first playoff berth since 2011.
“We knew if Bohmer got up, he was getting the job done,” Phillie starter Zach Eflin said. “He’s just playing awesome baseball. It’s really cool to see someone step up like that on multiple occasions and come through for the boys.”
Bohm hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning last week to lead the Phillies to a win over Washington. He also had a game-tying hit in the eighth inning of Philadelphia’s win a day earlier against the Mets.
The Phillies started a run of five doubleheaders — all of them seven-inning games — between now and Sept. 22. That highlights a stretch of 19 games in 15 days, including a whopping seven straight games in Miami.
Hector Neris (2-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to get the win in an only-in-2020 one day, two-game series.
Rafael Devers homered twice and Bobby Dalbec continued his homer hot streak for the Red Sox. Alex Verdugo also hit one of Boston’s four solo homers to nearly make a winner out of Martin Pérez.
Pérez took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning in his last start against Toronto. He followed up with an unsteady effort where he walked six batters and allowed four runs in five innings.
Dalbec went deep off in the fifth off Tommy Hunter for Boston’s fourth solo homer of the game that tied the score 4-all. Dalbec has homered in four of his first eight career games. Devers admired a deep shot off Hunter that ended up off the wall and an RBI double for a 5-4 lead.
The Red Sox started the solo-happy homer streak against starter Zach Eflin.
Didi Gregorius’ sixth homer of the season was a solo shot off Pérez in the second for a 1-0 lead. Devers evened the score with his eighth homer of the year on a liner to right.
The Phillies went ahead on a three-run third inning — on just one hit. Bryce Harper walked to lead off the inning and scored on an errant pickoff attempt by catcher Christian Vazquez. Gregorius and Phil Gosselin walked and scored on Bohm’s single to center for a 4-1 lead.
Verdugo and Devers went back-to-back in the fifth to make it 4-3.
“We came back on ’em and got the lead and got the people out there that we wanted to finish the game,” Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said. “It didn’t didn’t work.”
DOUBLE DIP
The Phillies will play doubleheaders Friday and Sunday at Miami, Sept. 18 vs. Toronto and Sept. 22 at Washington.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: Transferred OF Andrew Benintendi (ribs) to the 45-day injured list. … Added INF Christian Arroyo to the 40-man roster. … LHP Matt Hall was optioned to the alternate training site.
UP NEXT
The Phillies send righty Vince Velasquez (0-0, 6.60 ERA) to the mound against right-hander Chris Mazza (0-1, 6.00) in Game 2.
Philadelphia sends RHP Jake Arrieta (3-4, 5.67 ERA) to the mound for the first game of a seven-game series that starts Thursday in Miami.
The Red Sox open a series in Tampa Bay on Thursday and have not announced a starting pitcher.
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