BOSTON — Sandy Leon hit a home run and two doubles, Xander Bogaerts also homered and Rick Porcello took a three-hitter into the seventh inning, helping the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 8-3 on Tuesday night to match the second-best start in franchise history.
J.D. Martinez also had two of Boston’s six doubles. The Red Sox (38-17) won for the eighth time in 10 games to maintain the best record in the major leagues and their best record through 55 games since 2002. Only the 1946 Boston team that started 42-13 with Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr returning from World War II had a better start.
Porcello (7-2) allowed three runs, two earned, and five hits in 6 2/3 innings. Toronto loaded the bases against Hector Velazquez in the ninth, but Craig Kimbrel got the last two outs for his 17th save.
Marco Estrada (2-6) allowed four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings, dropping his fifth straight decision since April 26. Justin Smoak homered for Toronto, which has lost 12 of its last 16 games.
Boston led 5-1 after six, but Toronto cut the deficit in half in the seventh on a rally that started when Russell Martin was hit by a pitch with one out. Toronto loaded the bases before Porcello fanned Luke Maile for the second out.
Curtis Granderson hit a hard grounder past a diving first baseman Martinez, but second baseman Dustin Pedroia slid to field it in shallow right. He threw to Porcello covering first, but the ball went off his glove for an error and rolled off the fence in front of the Boston dugout, allowing Morales to score and make it 5-3.
Joe Kelly relieved Porcello and struck out Kevin Pillar on three pitches to end the inning.
Bogaerts homered over the Green Monster in the seventh, a solo shot, and Leon hit a two-run shot in the eighth to make it 8-3.
NOTES: Pedroia got his first hit of the season in the sixth inning, a single to right. First base coach Tom Goodwin gave him a pat on the batting helmet, his teammates applauded in the dugout and the Fenway Park crowd gave him a big cheer. The 2008 AL MVP started the season on the disabled list while he recovered from October knee surgery. He made his 2018 debut on Saturday and was 0 for 7 with two walks and a run in his first two games. … Boston outfielder Mookie Betts, who is leading the majors in batting average, OPS and runs, got a third straight day off with tightness in his left side. He is expected to take Wednesday off, too.
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