UNDATED (AP) — Hunter Renfroe continues to be a great pickup since signing with the Red Sox last winter.
Renfroe homered twice, the second a 434-foot solo shot over the Green Monster to break a sixth-inning tie in the Red Sox’s 6-5 victory over the Royals. Bobby Dalbec also homered and Renfroe had a two-run shot in the fourth as Boston came back after falling behind 5-1.
Renfroe is hitting .272 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs in 68 games.
Kiké Hernández led off the bottom of the first with a home run for the second straight game, helping the Red Sox earn their fourth straight win.
The Red Sox are a season-high 17 games above .500, and lead the AL East by one game over Tampa Bay.
Also on the major league schedule:
— Shohei Ohtani pounded his hardest-hit home run of the season in the Angels’ 5-3 win against the Yankees. Ohtani’s blast was a 117.2 mph drive to right off Michael King in a two-run first that also included Jared Walsh’s RBI double. José Suarez pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run relief after Dylan Bundy threw up on the mound because of heat exhaustion.
— Austin Hays blasted a tiebreaking, two-run homer in a five-run ninth that sent the Orioles past the Astros, 9-7. Rookie Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run homer and a two-run single while Baltimore was taking a 4-2 lead before Houston rallied. The Birds won despite 10 walks, three coming with the bases loaded.
— Jose Ramirez slammed a three-run homer and had five RBIs as the Indians turned a 19-hit attack into a 13-3 pounding of the Tigers. Austin Hedges had a two-run shot for Cleveland, which set season highs for runs and hits. Hedges added three RBIs and Amed Rosario had three hits for the Indians.
— Mookie Betts and Max Muncy hit back-to-back home runs to begin the first inning of the Dodgers’ 3-2 victory against the Giants. Will Smith also went deep for Los Angeles, which collected just two hits that didn’t leave the yard. Trevor Bauer gave up eight hits over six innings of the Dodgers’ fourth straight win, yielding home runs by LaMonte Wade Jr. and Brandon Crawford.
— Willy Adames and Keston Hiura each hit a three-run homer while the Brewers erupted for 10 runs in the eighth inning to hammer the Cubs, 14-4. Avisaíl García homered and drove in three runs for the NL Central leaders, who have won six straight to move four games ahead of Chicago. Jace Peterson went 3 for 4 and scored three runs to help Milwaukee withstand two-run homers by Patrick Wisdom and Ian Happ.
— Paul DeJong homered to cap a six-run burst in the seventh in the Cardinals’ 7-1 downing of the Diamondbacks. Dylan Carlson supplied the tiebreaking single and Yadier Molina added a two-run double before DeJong’s blast. Carlson also hit an RBI triple in the third as St. Louis won for just the second time in eight games.
— The Nationals doubled up the Mets, 8-4 as Kyle Schwarber homered twice off Jared Eickhoff. Schwarber is the first player in major league history to hit 15 home runs in a 17-day span. Ryan Zimmerman had a pinch-hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning for the Nationals after New York had cut the lead to 5-4.
— Nick Castellano launched a grand slam in the seventh inning and drove in a career-high seven runs as the Reds clobbered the Phillies, 12-4. Cincinnati trailed 4-2 before Castellanos connected for his sixth career grand slam, driving a 1-1 fastball from Neftali Feliz deep to center for his 15th homer. Cincinnati’s seventh-inning rally was sparked by Alejo Lopez, who hit a pinch-single after being recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Louisville.
— Kyle Freeland scattered three hits while striking out seven over five innings before leaving with a leg injury in the Rockies’ 2-0 shutout of Pittsburgh. Four relievers finished up the combined six-hitter to help Colorado win the opener of a seven-game homestand that followed another disastrous road trip. Yonathan Daza opened the scoring with a third-inning triple, two innings before Elias Diaz homered.
— The White Sox and Twins were supposed to open a four-game series tonight in Chicago, but the game has been rained out. The game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on July 19.
