Connelly Early spins career-best start as Red Sox hand Rays first AL East loss

BOSTON — After loading the bases with no outs in the third inning against a dangerous Tampa Bay Rays lineup, Boston Red Sox starter Connelly Early locked in.

He struck out Ryan Vilade on five pitches, then threw a first-pitch changeup to slugger Junior Caminero. Caminero hit a chopper to third as Caleb Durbin, who leads all third basemen with seven Defensive Runs Saved, quickly fielded the ball and fired to second as Marcelo Mayer made a quick turn to first for a game-changing double play.

A normally composed Early, thanks to his military background, let out a roar as he pointed to Durbin in appreciation of the play.

“It was the turning point in the game,” said manager Chad Tracy after an impressive 2-0 win over the Rays.

“Huge double play,” Early added. “From that moment, we had all the momentum.”

The Rays had won seven straight games against American League East opponents, a franchise record. They’d won nine straight games against left-handed starters.

Early put both of those streaks to a screeching halt.

That third inning was the only frame in which the 23-year-old faced any real adversity as he cruised to the best start of his career, twirling seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and a walk, while striking out eight.

The Rays entered the day with the second-fewest strikeouts in baseball, but Early racked them up, keeping Tampa Bay off balance with his six-pitch mix. He recorded at least one strikeout with every pitch except his slider.

Early capped his outing by getting Nick Fortes to strike out looking on a sinker at the bottom of the zone. He skipped off the mound after 96 pitches, 70 of which were for strikes.

“He’s controlling counts, staying ahead,” Tracy said. “He leaves some in the tank and he starts to get stronger as the game goes on. I’m seeing a lot of 92s, 93s. Then you get to the end there and you’re seeing 96s. So he had plenty in the tank left, and the strikeouts started to pile up more as the outing went along. So just a really, really good outing.”

It was the longest start of Early’s career and just his second scoreless outing after his big-league debut in September.

It also marked the first time this season the Rays had been shut out. Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman aided with that feat, locking down the final two innings.

But Early would not have notched the win if not for two big swings.

While Boston’s offense continues to search for rhythm, recording just four hits on Friday, two of those hits instantly put runs on the board.

Shortly after Early escaped the tricky third inning jam, Wilyer Arbreu demolished a two-strike slider, hitting a 427-foot solo homer over the bullpen in right center. An inning later, Ceddanne Rafaela crushed another solo shot into the Green Monster to make it 2-0.

The Red Sox have the fewest homers (29) in the American League, but have homered in 11 of their past 15 games. It marked just the second time at home this season that they’ve homered twice in the same game.

“We’ve started to hit a few more over the course of the last four or five days, which is good,” Tracy said. “Obviously, the multiple-run ones are great, but if you get two solos, we all know, home runs are instant offense.”

With strong defense and stellar pitching, Friday offered a blueprint for how the Red Sox can win with their pitching-and-defense approach this season.