BOSTON — Monday had the potential to be a pitching matchup for the ages.

On one side you had Garrett Crochet, one of baseball’s best pitchers and a leading contender for the AL Cy Young Award. On the other side you had Chase Burns, a top-10 prospect in baseball whose fastball hits triple digits and who’d just struck out eight Yankees in his MLB debut last week.

Burns may eventually develop into a great pitcher, but Monday was not his day.

The Red Sox ambushed the Cincinnati Reds rookie for seven runs in the bottom of the first, chasing the 22-year-old after he’d only recorded one out. The club kept piling on from there, with Wilyer Abreu hitting both an inside-the-park home run and a grand slam in Boston’s 13-6 win.

Boston’s bats quickly went to work in the bottom of the first, though if not for a defensive gaffe by the Reds things could have played out much differently.

After Jarren Duran led off with a walk, Roman Anthony hit a ground-ball to second that should have resulted in a double play. But Reds second baseman Matt McLain threw the ball over shortstop Elly de la Cruz’s head for an error, allowing Duran to take third and eventually score on Abraham Toro’s ensuring RBI single.

From there, the Red Sox were off to the races.

Carlos Narvaez hit an RBI double off the wall, and after Burns recorded his only out on a scorched grounder that went straight to the second baseman, Trevor Story blew the game open with a three-run home run to straightaway center field.

Marcelo Mayer followed with a double, David Hamilton drove him in with an RBI single, and Ceddanne Rafaela worked a nine-pitch walk. By that point Reds manager Terry Francona had seen enough, and the former Red Sox skipper pulled his talented right-hander.

Roman Anthony completed the rally with his ensuing RBI single off lefty Brent Suter, and the Red Sox wound up leaving the bases loaded leading 7-0. Burns’ final line: 0.1 innings, five hits, seven runs, five earned, two walks and no strikeouts. He threw 33 pitches, 22 for strikes.

The seven-run first inning was Boston’s most explosive start to a game since July 19, 2021, when the Red Sox scored eight runs in the first inning of an eventual 13-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Crochet retired the first nine batters he faced, but starting in the fourth inning the Reds started hitting him hard. Cincinnati scored three times in the fourth, including two runs on a triple to deep center by Austin Hays, and in the fourth Crochet was victimized by a Trevor Story error, which eventually led to an RBI single by McLain to make it 7-4.

The Red Sox got a run back in thrilling fashion in the fifth when Abreu led off the inning with a towering fly-ball off the deepest part of the center field fence. The ball caromed off the top of the wall and into no-man’s land, allowing Abreu to round the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

It was the first inside-the-park homer for the Red Sox since Eduardo Nunez on March 29, 2018, at Tampa Bay. For the last one hit by a Red Sox player at Fenway Park you have to go all the way back to Jacoby Ellsbury on Sept. 19, 2011.

Crochet wound up allowing a solo shot to Hays in the top of the sixth to make it 8-5, tying his season-high in runs allowed, but the left-hander completed the frame to give him seven straight starts of at least six innings. He finished with five runs (four earned) on seven hits, a walk and nine strikeouts.

Jarren Duran extended Boston’s lead back to four with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth. Newly activated right-hander Jordan Hicks, one of the pitchers acquired in the Rafael Devers trade, pitched a scoreless eighth inning in his Red Sox debut, and Abreu finished things off with his grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to effectively put the game out of reach.

It was the first grand slam of Abreu’s career, and he also became the eighth Red Sox player to hit an inside-the-park homer and a conventional homer in the same game, the last being Pokey Reese on May 8, 2004.

Cincinnati scored a run in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by McLain off Jorge Alcala. The Red Sox improve to 42-44 with the win and will look to clinch the series on Tuesday.

Tito returns

Terry Francona has been back at Fenway Park plenty of times since his tenure as Red Sox manager ended, but not long ago the idea he’d be back in the dugout again seemed unlikely. Yet after taking a year away from the game to focus on his health, Francona came out of retirement this past winter to take over as manager of the Reds.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who played parts of four seasons for Francona between 2005-08, said prior to Monday’s game that he was “very” surprised when he heard his old skipper was coming back but that he’s excited he’s back in the game.

“I’m glad that he’s back on the field. My biggest worry was health and he’s healthy,” Cora said. “I think the game is better with people like that on the field and I’m happy that he’s doing a good job with them.”

While he won’t reach the milestone in Boston, Francona is very close to becoming the 13th manager in MLB history to reach 2,000 wins. With Monday’s loss Francona is 1,994-1,713 over his 24 seasons as a big league manager.

Golden anniversary

The Reds’ visit to Fenway Park comes on the 50-year anniversary of the two teams’ meeting in the 1975 World Series, which Cincinnati won in seven games. The 1975 Fall Classic was among the most memorable in baseball history, featuring Carlton Fisk’s iconic walk-off home run in Game 6 off the left field foul pole to force the decisive seventh game.

The Red Sox honored the 1975 team’s anniversary back in April as part of the home opener’s pregame festivities, and several members of the club were in the building on Monday, including Jim Rice, Dwight Evans and Fisk.

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