Wilyer Abreu hits inside-the-park homer, grand slam in Red Sox 13-6 win

Monday had the likely to be a pitching matchup for the ages On one side you had Garrett Crochet one of baseball s best pitchers and a leading contender for the AL Cy Young Award On the other side you had Chase Burns a top- prospect in baseball whose fastball hits triple digits and who d just struck out eight Yankees in his MLB debut last week Burns may eventually develop into a great pitcher but Monday was not his day Related Articles Red Sox manager says struggling pitcher will make next start Red Sox activate hard-throwing reliever acquired in Rafael Devers deal Walker Buehler struggles Red Sox squander chances in loss to Blue Jays New Red Sox reliever Jordan Hicks looking to give bullpen a boost Roman Anthony provides update on contract talks with Red Sox The Red Sox ambushed the Cincinnati Reds rookie for seven runs in the bottom of the first chasing the -year-old after he d only recorded one out The club kept piling on from there with Wilyer Abreu hitting both an inside-the-park home run and a grand slam in Boston s - win Boston s bats briskly went to work in the bottom of the first though if not for a defensive gaffe by the Reds things could have played out much differently After Jarren Duran led off with a walk Roman Anthony hit a ground ball to second that should have resulted in a double play But Reds second baseman Matt McLain threw the ball over shortstop Elly de la Cruz s head for an error allowing Duran to take third and eventually outcome on Abraham Toro s ensuring RBI single From there the Red Sox were off to the races Carlos Narvaez hit an RBI double off the wall and after Burns recorded his only out on a scorched grounder that went straight to the second baseman Trevor Story blew the championship open with a three-run home run to straightaway center field Marcelo Mayer followed with a double David Hamilton drove him in with an RBI single and Ceddanne Rafaela worked a nine-pitch walk By that point Reds manager Terry Francona had seen enough and the former Red Sox skipper pulled his talented right-hander Roman Anthony completed the rally with his ensuing RBI single off lefty Brent Suter and the Red Sox wound up leaving the bases loaded leading - Burns final line innings five hits seven runs five earned two walks and no strikeouts He threw pitches for strikes The seven-run first inning was Boston s the greater part explosive start to a meeting since July when the Red Sox scored eight runs in the first inning of an eventual - win over the Toronto Blue Jays Crochet retired the first nine batters he faced but starting in the fourth inning the Reds started hitting him hard Cincinnati scored three times in the fourth including two runs on a triple to deep center by Austin Hays and in the fourth Crochet was victimized by a Trevor Story error which eventually led to an RBI single by McLain to make it - The Red Sox got a run back in thrilling fashion in the fifth when Abreu led off the inning with a towering fly ball off the deepest part of the center field fence The ball caromed off the top of the wall and into no-man s land allowing Abreu to round the bases for an inside-the-park home run It was the first inside-the-park homer for the Red Sox since Eduardo Nunez on March at Tampa Bay For the last one hit by a Red Sox sportsman at Fenway Park you have to go all the way back to Jacoby Ellsbury on Sept Crochet wound up allowing a solo shot to Hays in the top of the sixth to make it - tying his season-high in runs allowed but the left-hander completed the frame to give him seven straight starts of at least six innings He finished with five runs four earned on seven hits a walk and nine strikeouts Jarren Duran extended Boston s lead back to four with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth Newly activated right-hander Jordan Hicks one of the pitchers acquired in the Rafael Devers commerce pitched a scoreless eighth inning in his Red Sox debut and Abreu finished things off with his grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to effectively put the meeting out of reach It was the first grand slam of Abreu s career and he also became the eighth Red Sox competitor to hit an inside-the-park homer and a conventional homer in the same competition the last being Pokey Reese on May Cincinnati scored a run in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by McLain off Jorge Alcala The Red Sox improve to - with the win and will look to clinch the series on Tuesday Former Red Sox skipper Terry Francona came out of retirement this past year to take over as manager of the Cincinnati Reds Matt Stone Boston Herald Tito returns Terry Francona has been back at Fenway Park plenty of times since his tenure as Red Sox manager ended but not long ago the idea he d be back in the dugout again seemed unlikely Yet after taking a year away from the encounter to focus on his physical condition Francona came out of retirement this past winter to take over as manager of the Reds Red Sox manager Alex Cora who played parts of four seasons for Francona between - commented prior to Monday s meeting that he was very surprised when he heard his old skipper was coming back but that he s excited he s back in the battle I m glad that he s back on the field My biggest worry was wellness and he s healthy Cora declared I think the competition is better with people like that on the field and I m happy that he s doing a good job with them While he won t reach the milestone in Boston Francona is very close to becoming the th manager in MLB history to reach wins With Monday s loss Francona is - over his seasons as a big league manager Golden anniversary The Reds visit to Fenway Park comes on the -year anniversary of the two teams meeting in the World Series which Cincinnati won in seven games The Fall Classic was among the the bulk memorable in baseball history featuring Carlton Fisk s iconic walk-off home run in Event off the left field foul pole to force the decisive seventh challenge The Red Sox honored the band s anniversary back in April as part of the home opener s pregame festivities and several members of the club were in the building on Monday including Jim Rice Dwight Evans and Fisk