BOSTON -- All eyes were on phenoms Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper on Friday night at Fenway Park, and they certainly lived up to the hype while leading the Washington Nationals to a 7-4 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Strasburg picked up his seventh win of the season while striking out 13 batters and allowing just two runs on four hits and two walks in six innings.
The only runs he allowed came in the bottom of the second inning, on a Mike Aviles two-out, two-run double off the top of the wall in left-center.
That gave Boston an early 2-0 lead. But Strasburg settled down after that, and the Nationals offense -- led by Harper -- got to Felix Doubront in the third and fourth innings.
Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and shortstop Ian Desmond drove in the three runs in the top of the third -- an inning that began with a Danny Espinosa walk and a Harper double, ultimately resulting in a 3-2 Washington lead after three innings.
After Espinosa's RBI ground-rule double into the Red Sox bullpen in the top of the fourth put the Nationals up 4-2, Harper drilled a 1-1 Doubront fastball into the seats in deep right-center, just to the right of the triangle, over the far corner of Boston's bullpen, for a two-run homer and a 6-2 Washington lead.
Harper drove in his third run of the game in the top of the sixth inning when he put a two-out single to left, giving the Nationals a commanding 7-2 lead. Harper finished the game 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored.
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox scored their third run in the bottom of the eighth on an Adrian Gonzalez solo home run to deep center -- the 200th home run of his career -- and then got a fourth run on a Daniel Nava RBI double in the bottom of the ninth, but it wouldn't be enough to get Doubront off the hook, who picked up his third loss of the season.