Nelson Cruz, Mike Zunino and Adam Lind hit solo home runs, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1, on Wednesday night to hand Rick Porcello his first loss since May.
Cruz hit his 27th homer of the season leading off the second inning, Zunino hit his fifth leading off the sixth and Lind capped Seattle’s scoring with his 16th of the season with two outs in the seventh.
They were the only three hits allowed by Porcello until Zunino’s single in the eighth, but enough to hand the right-hander his first loss since May 17 against Kansas City. Porcello (14-3) had won his past eight decisions.
Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma (12-7) rebounded from a season-worst performance against the Chicago Cubs to limit Boston to five hits in 7.1 innings.
Before the stumble against the Cubs, Iwakuma had won his previous five decisions. He was dominant from the start against the Red Sox, striking out four of his first five batters. Only one baserunner managed to reach second base in the first seven innings against Iwakuma, that coming in the third when Andrew Benintendi got his first major league hit and advanced to second on Brock Holt’s two-out single. Benintendi was stranded when Xander Bogaerts fouled out to end the inning.
Iwakuma struck out seven and walked none, leaving with one out in the eight after Benintendi’s second hit. Mookie Betts greeted reliever Drew Storen with a single to advance Benintendi to second but he was stranded there again after Bogaerts flew out to the warning track in left to end the inning.
Rookie Edwin Diaz gave up a run in the ninth on Travis Shaw’s RBI ground out, but got Sandy Leon for the final out and his second save.
The three home runs by Seattle accounted for the three mistakes Porcello made in an otherwise strong start. Cruz’s homer was estimated at 441 feet and reached the second deck in left field. Zunino’s homered 427 feet to center field on a night swirling wind appeared to be knocking down fly balls to that part of the outfield. And Lind kept his fly ball fair down the right field line to give Seattle a 3-0 lead.
Porcello struck out eight and walked one.
The series concludes tonight at 10:10 in Seattle before the Red Sox wrap up an 11-game road trip with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers and their first day off since July 18 on Monday.