Gallen sharp as Diamondbacks beat Red Sox for 5th straight win

BOSTON (AP) — Zac Gallen pitched six innings of two-hit ball, and Eugenio Suárez hit a two-run double off the Green Monster on Saturday to help Arizona beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 for the Diamondbacks’ fifth straight victory.

Making his first career appearance at Fenway Park, Gallen (10-6) struck out nine and walked four to reach double digits in wins for the third season in a row. He took a no-hitter into the fifth before Connor Wong dropped a single into right field, and left after 99 pitches when Arizona went up 4-0 in the top of the seventh.

Before the game, he signed his name inside the Green Monster — getting startled by the noise from the batting practice wall balls.

“I spent a probably good 10 minutes out there, just kind of looking and seeing. So it was it was a lot of fun,” said Gallen, who took a tour of the ballpark with his mother, in the winter, when he was in high school and took in a couple of games during his college years at North Carolina.

“It’s fun to think about being on the mound with the guys that have played here over the last hundred years,” he said. “It’s fun to see ‘Sweet Caroline’ in the eighth inning. You grew up a baseball fan, those are things that kind of stick with you.”

The Diamondbacks have won 23 of their last 29 games to take hold of the top NL wild-card spot. They entered the day four games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

Boston managed just three hits through eight innings but led off the ninth with back-to-back hits off Paul Sewald to make it 4-1 before the reliever retired the next three batters.

Kutter Crawford (8-11) gave up three hits in five innings for Boston, while also walking two and striking out three. Boston pitchers handed out six walks — including four that helped Arizona score two runs in the seventh without getting a hit.

“When the pitcher has good stuff or he’s attacking and we’re not getting hits, I think our patience will pay off,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’re going to get some baserunners and create some run-scoring opportunities. That’s what we did today.”

One night after erupting for 12 runs on 16 hits, the Diamondbacks managed just one hit – and a lone baserunner – against Crawford through three innings before Joc Pederson hit a long flyball toward left field with one out in the fourth. Boston center fielder Jarren Duran crashed into the Green Monster trying to catch it, but it went off his glove for a double.

Josh Bell walked, and one out later Suárez scraped the left-field wall to make it 2-0. The Diamondbacks scored two more runs in the seventh without a hit when Lucas Sims walked two, then Brennan Bernardino walked two more and also threw a wild pitch that brought in another run.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly (3-0) faces Red Sox RHP Tanner Houck (8-8) in the series finale on Sunday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb