Rookie Marcelo Mayer homers twice, Walker Buehler delivers as Red Sox beat Rays, 4-3

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jun 11, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — From the moment Marcelo Mayer was drafted No. 4 overall in the 2021 MLB draft, Red Sox fans have dreamed of how his sweet left-handed swing would play at Fenway Park.

Wednesday evening, fans got to see it for themselves.

Mayer enjoyed his big Fenway breakout, cranking two home runs in the club’s 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Mayer’s homers were both solo shots to almost the exact same spot in right field past Pesky’s Pole, and the rookie finished 2 for 4 in the best performance of his young career.

Starting pitcher Walker Buehler also came through with a brilliant outing, and the Red Sox collectively hit four solo homers as a team, the first two coming on the first pitch of their respective innings.

Jarren Duran started things off by smashing the first pitch thrown by Rays starter Zack Littell into the bullpen for a leadoff home run. When the Rays tied the game with an RBI fielder’s choice by Josh Lowe in the top of the second, Mayer delivered an immediate answer to start the bottom of the frame.

Mayer’s homer was measured at 418 feet, and his next time up he nearly got the same result, hitting another bomb to right field 410 feet to extend Boston’s lead to 3-1. In the process the 22-year-old became the youngest Red Sox player to record a multi-homer game since Rafael Devers in 2018, according to the club.

He is also just the 10th Red Sox player to have a multi-homer game within his first 15 career games, joining Michael Chavis (2019), Travis Shaw (2015), Will Middlebrooks (2012), John Marzano (1987), Dave Stapleton (1980), Billy Conigliaro (1969), Bob Tillman (1962) and Ted Williams (1939).

Abraham Toro hit the fourth home run in the bottom of the fifth, which came shortly after the Rays tied the game, and gave Boston a 4-3 lead.

While the offense was doing its thing, Buehler became the latest Red Sox starting pitcher to take a major step forward.

Coming into the series the Red Sox had allowed a first-inning run in seven of their prior 10 games, and for more than a month the club’s non-Garrett Crochet starters were averaging fewer than five innings per outing. But this week both Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito kept the Rays off the board in the first before completing six innings, and Wednesday Buehler made it 3 for 3.

It wasn’t a perfect night for the right-hander. Buehler loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the second and allowed a run before escaping without further damage. He also allowed a two-out, two-run home run to Yandy Diaz in the top of the fifth, which briefly tied the game at 3-3 before Toro’s subsequent shot.

But all told it was Buehler’s best outing since coming off the injured list. The right-hander finished with three runs allowed over seven innings with six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts, punctuating his evening by winning a 10-pitch battle against Lowe and drawing a groundout to first.

It was just the 10th outing of seven or more innings by a Red Sox starter this year, and the fourth by someone other than Crochet.

Things got tense in the top of the eighth when the Rays had two batters reach against left-hander Justin Wilson, putting the tying run in scoring position with one out. Red Sox manager Alex Cora handed the ball to Greg Weissert to preserve the one-run lead, and the righty got an immediate boost from catcher Carlos Narvaez, who threw out his second would-be base-stealer of the game by nailing Diaz attempting to take third base.

Instead of facing men at the corners with one out and the prospect of a fly ball tying the game, Weissert now had two outs and only a man on first. That cushion proved essential after Weissert walked a man and allowed an infield single to load the bases, but he was able to escape the jam by striking out Matt Thaiss to end the inning.

The Red Sox were unable to take advantage of a leadoff double by Narvaez in the bottom of the eighth, but Aroldis Chapman closed things out with a perfect top of the ninth, giving the club its seventh one-run win of the season and its first since May 24.