Rich Hill strikes out 11 as Red Sox beat Rays 5-1 win

By KEN POWTAK Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Rich Hill struck out a season-high 11 in seven shutout innings, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 on Saturday for a rare series win against another AL East team.

Kiké Hernández hit a solo homer for Boston, which also beat Tampa Bay 9-8 on Friday night. J.D. Martinez and Bobby Dalbec each drove in two runs.

The last-place Red Sox (62-65) had dropped four in a row before the contending Rays arrived at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are 3-13-1 in series against AL East clubs this season.

Randy Arozarena hit an RBI single in the eighth to account for Tampa Bay's only run. The Rays (69-57) are fighting for positioning in the AL wild-card standings.

The game took just 2 hours, 24 minutes.

Making his fourth start after spending a month on the injured list with a sprained left knee, the 42-year-old Hill (6-5) allowed only three singles and walked one. He threw 71 of his 95 pitches for strikes, many in the low 70-mph range.

John Schreiber worked 1 1/3 innings for his fifth save. He entered with runners on the corners and got Harold Ramírez to bounce back to the mound, ending the threat.

Tampa Bay left-hander Jeffrey Springs (6-4) allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings. He was 3-0 with a 1.66 ERA in his previous four starts.

Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story went 1 for 3 with an infield single in his return after missing six weeks with a small fracture near his right wrist after getting hit by a pitch from Tampa Bay's Corey Kluber on July 12.