Red Sox 15, Mariners 1
BOSTON -- Hours after learning manager John Farrell was about to begin a battle against lymphoma, the Boston Red Sox pummeled the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
Rookie first baseman Travis Shaw hit two homers and drove in three runs, rookie right fielder Rusney Castillo homered and second baseman Brock Holt and third baseman Pablo Sandoval both drove in three runs to highlight a 21-hit attack in a 15-1 victory that snapped both Boston's two-game losing and Seattle's two-game winning streaks.
Farrell told his players and then the media before the game that a mass was discovered and removed during hernia surgery last Monday in Detroit. He will begin chemotherapy during the coming week and bench coach Torey Lovullo will manage the team the rest of the season.
Lovullo is an emphatic 1-0.
"We know he's going to get through this. We'll all get through it together and do anything we can to help him," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said after joining Farrell and DH David Ortiz at a media gathering which Farrell opened with the news.
Right-hander Joe Kelly gave up a first-inning homer to third baseman Kyle Seager and then settled down to win his third straight start and move to 5-6.
The Red Sox, reaching a season high for runs and hits in a game largely thanks to 11 extra base hits, drilled six straight hits to knock left-hander Mike Montgomery (4-5 and winless in seven starts) from the game in a six-run third inning. Boston had two-run hits from Sandoval, Shaw and Holt in the inning. Holt had a two-run triple and RBI double in the win.
Sandoval's RBI double in the sixth gave him his 500th career RBI.
The 15 runs were the most allowed this season by the Mariners, who had won seven of their last 10 coming in.
The 15 runs were the most scored by the Red Sox in a game since they scored 17 June 4, 2013.
Castillo left the game after fouling a ball off his left foot. He is 19-for-56 (.339) with 11 RBIs in 16 games since being recalled from Triple-A.
Seager hit his 17th homer of the year with one out in a long first inning that saw Kelly strand two runners.
The Red Sox came back in the bottom of the first and rallied with two outs and nobody on. The first out was an overturned safe call on center fielder Mookie Betts at first base. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts walked and rode home on Ortiz's long double to right center. Castillo then crashed his first homer in his last 42 at-bats.
After Betts ended the top of the third with a leaping catch that robbed second baseman Robinson Cano of an extra-base hit, Montgomery got the first out in the bottom of the inning -- before the six straight hits knocked him from the game.
Ortiz singled and took second on Castillo's single. Both scored when third baseman Pablo Sandoval doubled. Shaw hit the next pitch for his two-run shot and a 7-1 lead.
Two straight hits, including Bradley's second single, followed and that was all for Montgomery. After David Rollins got the second out, center fielder Austin Jackson played Holt's drive into a two-run triple.
Montgomery has a 7.99 ERA in his last seven starts.
Betts stroked a two-out RBI triple and Holt brought him home with a double to make it 11-1 in the fifth.
NOTES: Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said the club might add a coach to the staff after Torey Lovullo moves from bench coach to interim manager while manager John Farrell takes the rest of the season off to receive treatment for Stage 1 lymphoma. ... Sizzling OF Nelson Cruz returned to the Seattle lineup as the DH after missing a game with a sore neck. ... Boston LF Hanley Ramirez missed his fifth straight game with a sore left foot. ... Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon on starting Logan Morrison in left for the first time this year in the difficult spot in front of the Green Monster: "Just play right up against it. If it's over your head, it's out. Anything in front of him, you charge." ... Seattle ace RHP Felix Hernandez faces Boston LHP Wade Miley in the second game of the series on Saturday. Hernandez is looking for his 15th win. Miley is 0-5 with two no-decisions in his last seven starts.