Díaz gets 3 hits as Tampa Bay Rays beat Boston Red Sox 10-5

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Yandy Díaz had three hits, scored three times and drove in three runs, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 10-5 on Monday night.

Díaz’s 10th multihit game since June 26 raised his batting average to .500 (27 for 54) over his last 15 games.

Tampa Bay had dropped four of six, including a three-game series sweep at lowly Cincinnati over the weekend. Luke Bard (1-0) pitched three innings for his first win with the Rays.

J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo had two hits apiece for the Red Sox, who have given up 25 runs in losing their last three games against the Rays.

The Rays led 5-1 after nine of their first 13 hitters (including Díaz and Ji-Man Choi twice each) reached base safely against Brayan Bello.

But Martinez hit a two-run double in the third, then doubled again in the fifth and scored on Bogaerts’ tying single.

Only a fully horizontal diving catch by center fielder Brett Phillips, robbing Trevor Story of a second-inning RBI double, kept the Rays from falling behind at that point.

Díaz regained the lead for Tampa Bay with a run-scoring double into the left-corner off Jake Diekman (4-1) in the sixth. Harold Ramirez then made it 7-5 when he drove in Díaz with a pinch-hit single off Kaleb Ort.

Díaz added a sacrifice fly in the eighth when the Rays tacked on three unearned runs.

Bello permitted five runs and seven hits in four innings in his second major league start.

Rays opener Matt Wiser, who pitched only the first inning, was followed by Josh Fleming, who gave up four runs in three innings before leaving the game with right oblique tightness.