ST. LOUIS (AP) — Xander Bogaerts drove in both runs, including a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, as the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Wednesday night.
The matchup of Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly, former teammates who were each other’s best man at their weddings, was a high quality draw that brought out their best. Each allowed a run in seven innings.
Junichi Tazawa (2-3) worked a perfect eighth and Koji Uehara worked around two hits in the ninth for his 23rd save in 25 chances. Trevor Rosenthal (1-6) blew his fifth save in 40 chances.
Kelly worked seven innings only twice in 22 starts for St. Louis the last two seasons and Miller got that deep for just the eighth time in 54 career starts.
Kelly got a nice ovation while walking to the bullpen to begin warmups, with hundreds of fans standing. There were more cheers when he stepped onto the mound for the first time, and before his first at-bat leading off the third.
The Red Sox loaded the bases with none out in the ninth against Rosenthal, a single by Yoenis Cespedes, double by Mike Napoli and intentional walk to pinch hitter David Ortiz. Bogaerts lined out to center for a sacrifice fly and the lead.
The first pitch was delayed 1 hour, 3 minutes by rain.