Advertisement

Napoli, Ortiz HR In 10th To Push Sox Past Twins

The Red Sox' Mike Napoli is congratulated by teammates after hitting the game-winning, walk off home run against the Twins Wednesday afternoon. (Charles Krupa/AP)
The Red Sox' Mike Napoli is congratulated by teammates after hitting the game-winning, walk off home run against the Twins Wednesday afternoon. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Mike Napoli and David Ortiz hit consecutive homers with one out in the 10th inning and the Boston Red Sox rallied past Minnesota 2-1 Wednesday, sending the Twins to their fifth straight loss.

Boston was held to one hit — a fifth-inning double by Daniel Nava — before the homers.

The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 10th on Chris Parmelee's two-out home run off Red Sox closer Koji Uehara (2-1).

But after Dustin Pedroia flied out to begin the Boston 10th, the Red Sox connected against Casey Fien (3-4) to complete a three-game sweep.

Ortiz hit his drive down the right-field line and pumped his fist toward the Boston dugout as he headed toward first base. Napoli hit his shot into the center-field bleachers.

Parmelee also had two singles as Minnesota finished a 3-6 road trip.

Uehara had a scoreless streak snapped at 21 2/3 innings when Parmelee homered into the Red Sox bullpen over the leap of right fielder Brock Holt.

Like the previous two games of the series, both one-run wins by Boston, neither team had much offense going. The Twins entered the day with seven combined hits and one run in the first two games and Boston scored just three total runs.

Boston's John Lackey and Minnesota's Kyle Gibson kept up the trend with strong pitching performances.

Lackey gave up three singles over nine innings, striking out nine and walking one. He's allowed three or fewer runs in six straight starts, and 12th of 15 this season.

Gibson pitched seven shutout innings for the third consecutive start, allowing only Nava's double, while striking out eight without walking anyone.

Gibson retired the first 14 batters before Nava lined a double near the base of the right-field wall that bounced in Boston's bullpen for a ground-rule double.

Ortiz reached on what was ruled an error by official scorer Bob Ellis after the ball deflected off first baseman Joe Mauer's glove and to his right in the seventh inning. When he walked off the field following Napoli's double play grounder, Ortiz was glaring and gesturing up at the press box.

Pedroia had his streak of reaching in every career start against the Twins snapped at 30 after he went 0 for 4.

Advertisement

More from WBUR

Listen Live
Close