Red Sox tied MLB record with six grand slams in April 2018
By Sean Penney
The Boston Red Sox tied a major league record by bashing six grand slams in the month of April to begin their historic 2018 season.
The 2018 Boston Red Sox were a juggernaut that ran roughshod over their competition on their way to a franchise-record 108 wins and a World Series title. They set the tone for their historic season early by dominating out of the gate with a 21-7 start, including 19 wins in the month of April to set another franchise record.
That wasn’t the only bit of history the Red Sox made that month. On the last day of April, Boston’s lineup tallied their sixth grand slam of the season to tie a major league record for the most hit by a team before May.
Records set in April pale in comparison to those set in October but now we can reflect on that historical start knowing what the club was building toward.
April 7
Xander Bogaerts hit the first grand slam of the 2018 season for the Red Sox in a 10-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. He had already put his team ahead with a double in the first inning that drove in a pair but Bogaerts would break the game wide open when he returned to the plate in the second.
Struggling Rays starter Jake Faria walked three batters to load the bases with two outs in the second inning. Faria ran the count full to Bogaerts and as wild as he had been, the right-hander was clearly concerned about walking the batter with no safe place to put him.
Faria settled on a meatball down the middle, a 91 mph fastball that Bogaerts crushed over the Green Monster in right field to expand the lead to 8-2.