BOSTON — Jackie Bradley Jr. wasted little time extending his majors’ best hitting streak Friday night.
After that, the rest of his teammates didn’t do much against Cleveland ace Corey Kluber.
Bradley stretched his streak to 25 games by homering on the second pitch in his first at-bat, but Jason Kipnis hit a three-run homer to carry the Indians past the Boston Red Sox, 4-2.
Bradley homered into the first row of the center-field bleachers, making it 2-0 in the second.
“I put a good swing on a pitch low and down the middle,” Bradley said. “Happened to get into the wind. Played the course pretty well today.”
Kluber (3-5) slowed down the majors’ top-scoring team for seven innings as the Indians won their fifth straight game.
“The most impressive thing is the authority in which he’s swinging the bat,” Boston Manager John Farrell said of Bradley. “He’s driving the baseball very good. He’s in a dangerous position at the plate, seeing the ball well, putting good swings on multiple types of pitches.”
Kluber allowed a run in each of the first two innings but gave up just one hit over the next five. He allowed five hits, struck out six and walked two.
“That’s what your ace is supposed to do but it’s easier said than done,” Indians Manager Terry Francona said. “That’s a heck of a lineup.”
The Red Sox homered for a club-record 20th straight game, breaking their mark of 19 set in July 1996.
Clay Buchholz (2-4) gave up four runs, three earned, on five hits in six innings, walking four and striking out three.
It was just Boston’s fourth loss in 12 games.
Notes
The Red Sox put right-handed reliever Carson Smith on the 15-day disabled list and utilityman Brock Holt on the seven-day concussion DL.
Smith is sidelined for the second time. He started the season on the DL with what he said was a “very similar” soreness.
Farrell said Holt had a “whiplash” type feeling after diving for a ball last week. After soreness in his neck subsided “some of these other symptoms of being a mild concussion were still present.”
To take their spots, catcher and recently converted left fielder Blake Swihart and right-hander Noe Ramirez were recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket.
The 26-year-old Smith made just three appearances since coming off the DL on May 3, allowing only an unearned run in 22/3 innings.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
