Red Sox 6, Phillies 2: Eduardo Rodriguez shuts down Phillies as Sox sweep

The Red Sox finally have themselves another three-game sweep thanks to seven strong innings from Eduardo Rodriguez and David Ortiz' 31st homer of the season.

Whereas Saturday's game was a tale of one big inning, Sunday's was more-or-less over in two. Eduardo Rodriguez started off his day by striking out Cesar Hernandez and Aaron Altherr in a 1-2-3 first, while Jerad Eickhoff had rather more trouble. After a couple fly balls from Mookie Betts and Brock Holt found outfielders' gloves, Xander Bogaerts singled to keep the inning alive, and David Ortiz got a fastball over the plate that he sent better than 400 feet to right for a two-run shot to give Boston the early lead.

Eickhoff's day would get a lot worse before it got better. While he would finish his outing with two straight clean innings, in the second he fell completely apart. Rusney Castillo led off the frame with a double, and while he was able to pick off the outfielder as he tried to take third, that didn't end up helping much. Ryan Hanigan gave the Sox their baserunner back with a single, moved to second as Josh Rutledge walked, and then scored along with the second baseman when Jackie Bradley Jr. shot a line drive into the corner in right field for a two-run triple. Mookie Betts singled him home, and eventually scored himself on a sacrifice fly from David Ortiz to make it 6-0.

Perhaps because of the long wait, Eduardo Rodriguez was slightly off when he returned, allowing the first three batters of the third to reach base, bringing one run in and threatening more. But he would quickly battle back, getting the next three Phillies in order to end the frame.

From there, Rodriguez was money. More or less. The first out of the fourth would come on a long fly ball to center field that would have been good for a home run had Mookie Betts not been up to the task of reeling it back from over the bullpen wall. But Betts made his big catch, and Rodriguez did not ask for more defensive heroics as he pitched through the seventh without allowing another run, striking out seven batters in the process. Of course, it would not be a Red Sox game without some bullpen issues, and Robbie Ross ensured that by surrendering a ninth-inning run on back-to-back two-out hits. But that was only enough to make it 6-2, and Cesar Hernandez grounded out to end the inning and complete the sweep,

Also, the Red Sox taped Henry Owens to a pole in the dugout. So there's that.