Boston Red Sox vs Baltimore Orioles Box Score on Aug 21, 2020

Rafael Devers, J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts all homered to help the visiting Boston Red Sox score six runs in the first five innings en route to an 8-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.

The Red Sox have won three in a row after dropping nine straight. Baltimore has lost six in a row to fall two games below .500.

Both teams went with pitching-by-committee, and left-handed reliever Darwinzon Hernandez (1-0) earned the win. Starter Colten Brewer threw four shutout innings before Hernandez took over in the fifth and earned his first major league win with two scoreless frames.

John Means (0-2) started for the Orioles and gave up two homers, leaving after Boston took a 3-0 after three innings.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 edge in the second when Bogaerts crushed a changeup that Means left over the plate.

Boston then stretched the margin to 3-0 when Martinez belted a two-run homer in the third. Again, Means left a changeup over the plate at the bottom of the strike zone, and Martinez sent it over the fence in center field.

Devers then hit a three-run shot that gave Boston a 6-0 lead in the fifth off Jorge Lopez. In the sixth, Michael Chavis drove in two more with a single to push Boston's lead to 8-0.

The Orioles got two runs back in the seventh when Pat Valaika and Cedric Mullins hit back-to-back solo homers to cut the lead to 8-2.

Baltimore climbed closer in the eighth, thanks to Chance Sisco's three-run bomb off Josh Osich, but Boston's Matt Barnes pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth to pick up his first save of the season.

The Orioles made a move that had been expected. They put first baseman Chris Davis (left knee patellar tendinitis) on the 10-day injured list and recalled infielder/outfielder Ryan Mountcastle from the alternate training site.

Mountcastle played in left field -- that's the position he's worked on most recently in the minors after playing third base and first base previously -- and went 0-for-2 with two walks. He scored on the Sisco homer.

--Field Level Media