Boston was looking to leave the recent ugly loss against the Yankees behind, and acomplished that by sending the recent-dominant Joe Kelly (9-6, 4.84) to the mound for the series opener against the Phillies. The right-hander starting pitcher started the game with a historic month of August, by winning all of his six games of the month. Meanwhile, Philadelphia had their rookie Adam Morgan to start the game. Morgan had a strong outing in his last start with 6.0 IP, 4H, 2R and 0 ER.
Kelly allowed a single to Odubel Herrera to begin the inning, but Xander Bogaerts got him out at second when Cesar Hernandez grounded into a force out for the first out of the inning.