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RED SOX 4, MARINERS 0

Chris Sale — who else? — ends Red Sox’ four-game skid

Chris Sale allowed only three hits in seven shutout innings with one walk and 11 strikeouts.TED S. WARREN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE — Chris Sale left Safeco Field around the fourth inning on Tuesday night, the lefthander heading back to the team hotel to have dinner and get some sleep before his start against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday afternoon.

The rest of the Red Sox were just getting started on what proved to be a long and painful night. The game went 13 innings and lasted just a few ticks under five hours before the Mariners won by a run.

“I actually fell asleep before the end of it. So I woke up this morning and heard the news,” Sale said.

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Sale knew then he had to give his tired teammates a lift. He did more than that, throwing seven dominant innings as the Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-0.

Sale allowed three hits, walked one and struck out 11, adding a bold line to what looks increasingly like a perfect Cy Young Award résumé.

Rookie Rafael Devers was 2 for 4 and homered as the Sox headed home with a sense of relief, not dread. They open a 10-game homestand on Friday against the Kansas City Royals.

“We had the right man on the mound,” Jackie Bradley Jr. said. “But that’s the way he always pitches.”

The Sox were 2-4 on their road trip, Sale winning the first and last games. He threw 13 shutout innings and struck out 20.

Sale (13-4) dropped his earned run average to 2.37. He has 10 or more strikeouts in 14 of 21 starts and since the All-Star break has thrown 20⅔ innings without giving up a run.

“We’re watching one of the better years ever pitched by a major league pitcher in the American League,” manager John Farrell said.

For the Sox, spirits were lifted. Several of the players are fighting through injuries and others are mired in slumps. For some, it’s both. As a team, the first-place Sox have been on a steady decline for three weeks.

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One more loss would have put them percentage points behind the Yankees in the American League East.

Games like this are why you trade golden boy prospects to get a pitcher like Sale.

“We know where we’re at. We know what we did on this road trip,” Sale said. “It’s nice to come here and get the last one. Especially going into the off day A little positive momentum for the flight home.”

Chris Sale gave the Red Sox a huge lift with seven dominant innings of shutout ball in Wednesday’s 4-0 victory over the Mariners.Ted S. Warren/AP

The Mariners never came close to scoring against Sale.

When Jean Segura doubled in the third inning, Sale struck out Ben Gamel and Nelson Cruz on seven pitches.

Gamel had a single in the sixth inning and Sale responded with strikeouts of Cruz and Danny Valencia on nine pitches.

Sale retired the final six batters he faced, four by strikeout.

Blaine Boyer got through the eighth inning but put two on in the ninth. Craig Kimbrel, who threw 30 pitches on Tuesday, struck out both batters he faced for his 25th save.

Seattle rookie righthander Andrew Moore (1-3) retired the Sox in order in the first inning, then gave up four runs in the next three.

Hanley Ramirez walked and took third on a double by Bradley to start the second inning. Ramirez tagged up on a shallow fly ball to left field by Mitch Moreland and scored on a close play.

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Devers homered to center field leading off the third inning, hammering a fastball 427 feet. It was his first major league hit after going 0 for 4 with two walks on Tuesday.

The last Red Sox player with a home run for his first major league hit was Daniel Nava, who had a grand slam on June 12, 2010.

The slam was on the first pitch Nava saw in the majors. For Devers, the home run came in his seventh plate appearance.

“I knew it was going out. But of course I had to run hard out of the box,” Devers said via a translator. “But I knew it was going out. It was surreal when I got back to the dugout. I could barely walk.”

Rafael Devers knew his first major league homer was going to leave the premises at Safeco Field, but he ran so hard around the bases “I could barely walk,” he said, once he got back to the dugout.Ted S. Warren/AP

The 20-year-old Devers is the youngest Sox player to homer since Tony Conigliaro late in the 1965 season and the youngest in the majors since Houston’s Carlos Correa in 2015.

Bradley doubled again in the fourth inning and scored when catcher Sandy Leon homered to right field.

“The early offense was maybe more a reflection of the competitiveness that’s here,” Farrell said.

Sale will not pitch again until Tuesday, however.

“I don’t think we’ve played our best,” Bradley said. “Baltimore was the hot team early in the division. Then it was the Yankees. I don’t think we’ve had that yet.

“We needed today, for sure. Hopefully we’ve gotten through the tough times.”


Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.

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