doubleheader sweep<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n ![\"Wilyer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sox.jpg#.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Wilyer Abreu, right, is congratulated by Willson Contreras after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Boston.<\/p>\n
AP Photo\/Charles Krupa<\/p>\n
Victor Mesa Jr. had a go-ahead, two-run homer and Jonny DeLuca added a solo shot for the Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n
Abreu’s shot off Garrett Cleavinger (2-3) capped a four-run inning that wiped out a 6-3 deficit. Ceddanne Rafaela had an RBI double and Masataka Yoshida had a run-scoring ground out in the inning.<\/p>\n
Ryan Watson (1-0) pitched two innings for his first major league victory and Aroldis Chapman got the final three outs for his 21st save.<\/p>\n
Trailing 3-2 in the fourth, the Rays jumped ahead with three runs. Mesa Jr. hit his homer into Tampa Bay’s bullpen and Yandy D\u00edaz added an RBI single.<\/p>\n
DeLuca’s homer over the Green Monster made it 6-3 in the seventh.<\/p>\n
Making his second start after missing last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, Boston’s Patrick Sandoval gave up five runs in five innings.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay took a 2-0 edge in the second when Ryan Vilade scored on second baseman Seigler’s throwing error and Nick Furias had an RBI single, but Jahmai Jones’ two-run homer tied it in the bottom half after Andruw Monasterio correctly challenged a called 3-2 strike that would have ended the inning.<\/p>\n
Rays starter Ian Seymour lasted just three innings, allowing three runs and two homers after giving up a career-high tying six runs in his previous start.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Rays LHP Shane McClanahan (8-5, 2.83 ERA) was set to face RHP Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54) in the series finale Sunday.<\/p>\n
In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KEN POWTAK Associated Press Wilyer Abreu hit two home runs – the second a go-ahead, two-run shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[77317,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-344863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}