Peavy strong in MLB debut for Red Sox in win over Diamondbacks

Pitcher allows just four hits in seven-plus innings to lead Boston to 5-2 victory over Arizona.

Jake Peavy struck out seven and walked two against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Brian Snyder / Reuters

BOSTON // Jake Peavy allowed four hits in seven-plus innings to lead the Red Sox to a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night, winning his first start since coming to Boston at the MLB trade deadline.

Peavy (8-5) struck out seven and walked two, giving up Paul Goldschmidt's homer in the fourth and leaving with a 3-1 lead after a lead-off single in the eighth.

Peavy was acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a three-team trade that included Detroit. The former Cy Young winner walked slowly from the mound as the crowd rose to a standing ovation, tipping his cap to the fans while crossing the first-base line on his way to the dugout.

Shane Victorino and Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered for Boston. Koji Uehara pitched the ninth for his 10th save.

Patrick Corbin allowed three runs on eight hits and two walks, striking out six in six-plus innings for his second consecutive loss.

Peavy left after giving up a lead-off single to Wil Nieves in the eighth, then the Diamondbacks continued to load the bases against Craig Breslow. Aaron Hill singled off Junichi Tazawa to make it 3-2 but left fielder Jonny Gomes threw out Cliff Pennington at the plate when he tried to score from second. Goldschmidt struck out, then Eric Chavez flied out to left to end the inning.

Boston made it 5-2 in the bottom half when Saltalamacchia homered into the Red Sox bullpen, where Uehara caught it.

The Red Sox, who lost the series opener on Friday, have won six of their last eight games to hold onto first place in the AL East.

In other Interleague play, Wil Myers had an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Tampa Bay Rays to a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees beat the San Diego Padres 3-0.

In the National League, Dan Uggla scored a tiebreaking RBI grounder in the 12th as the Braves beat the slumping Philadelphia Phillies 5-4 for their ninth straight win.

Luis Avilan pitched a scoreless 11th inning to earn the win and Craig Kimbrel got the last three outs for his 33rd save as the Braves won for the 11th time in 13 games.

Phillies left-hander Jake Diekman pitched a perfect 11th but ran into trouble in the 12th. Justin Upton walked leading off and went to second on Freddie Freeman's groundout. Walks to Evan Gattis and Paul Janish loaded the bases.

After right-hander Justin De Fratus came on, Uggla hit a bounding ball to short that looked like it could be a double play, but Uggla was safe when Chase Utley's relay pulled an extended Kevin Frandsen off the bag at first.

In Chicago, Chris Capuano scattered six hits over 6 1-3 innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers set a team record with their 13th straight road win, 3-0 over the Chicago Cubs.

The Dodgers eclipsed the 1924 mark set by the Brooklyn Robins.

Carl Crawford broke open a 1-0 game by driving in two runs with a single in the sixth inning. Jerry Hairston Jr. singled in the first run in the third for NL West-leading Los Angeles, which is 13-2 since the All-Star break and has won 30 of its last 37 overall.

In other NL games on Saturday, the Washington Nationals shut out the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0, the Cincinnati Reds thrashed the St Louis Cardinals 8-3.

In the American League, Ryan Doumit hit the go-ahead single in the seventh inning, Minnesota's bullpen pitched six scoreless innings and the Twins beat the Houston Astros 6-4.

The Detroit Tigers held on for a 3-0 victory over the punchless Chicago White Sox, the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 and the Seattle Mariners cruised to an 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Follow us