One for the books: Toronto’s Raimel Tapia hits inside-the-park grand slam at Fenway Park

RED SOX

By Jon Couture Globe correspondent,Updated July 22, 2022, 28 minutes ago

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It was history. And has too often been the case for the Red Sox lately, it was the wrong kind of history.

Amid what was already a slew of Toronto runs to begin a pivotal three-game series and 10-game Boston homestand, Raimel Tapia hit the first inside-the-park grand slam in the majors since 2017 in the third inning. Jarren Duran appeared to never see the ball off the bat of his counterpart center fielder, not finding it until it bounced off the warning track. Duran then simply stared at it as Lourdes Gurriel, Santiago Espinal, Danny Jansen, and Tapia raced around to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.

It was the lowlight of a seven-run third inning for the Jays, who had knocked out Nate Eovaldi by loading the bases on four hits and a walk, then scored four on Austin Davis’ first pitch in relief. They would add four more off Davis in the fourth.

Eovaldi lasted just 2⅔ innings, allowing eight hits and two walks and surrendering nine earned runs.

According to Baseball Reference, it was the first inside-the-park grand slam since Washington’s Michael A. Taylor hit one at Nationals Park on Sept. 8, 2017. It was the second inside-the-park slam in Blue Jays franchise history, with both coming at Fenway Park — Junior Felix hit one off Bob Stanley on June 2, 1989.

The most recent inside-the-park grand slam hit at Fenway came off the bat of Mike Greenwell on Sept. 1, 1990, off the Yankees’ Greg Cadaret.