Make it a dozen: Red Sox rally for 7-6 victory over Rays for 12th straight win

BOSTON (AP) — Wilyer Abreu hit two home runs – the second a go-ahead, two-run shot in the seventh inning that gave him four homers in two games — and the Boston Red Sox rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday to extend their winning streak to 12 games.

Abreu also hit two in the nightcap of a doubleheader sweep Friday.

Victor Mesa Jr. had a go-ahead, two-run homer and Jonny DeLuca added a solo shot for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Abreu’s shot off Garrett Cleavinger (2-3) capped a four-run inning that wiped out a 6-3 deficit. Ceddanne Rafaela had an RBI double and Masataka Yoshida had a run-scoring ground out in the inning.

Ryan Watson (1-0) pitched two innings for his first major league victory and Aroldis Chapman got the final three outs for his 21st save.

Trailing 3-2 in the fourth, the Rays jumped ahead with three runs. Mesa Jr. hit his homer into Tampa Bay’s bullpen and Yandy Díaz added an RBI single.

DeLuca’s homer over the Green Monster made it 6-3 in the seventh.

Making his second start after missing last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, Boston’s Patrick Sandoval gave up five runs in five innings.

Tampa Bay took a 2-0 edge in the second when Ryan Vilade scored on second baseman Seigler’s throwing error and Nick Furias had an RBI single, but Jahmai Jones’ two-run homer tied it in the bottom half after Andruw Monasterio correctly challenged a called 3-2 strike that would have ended the inning.

Rays starter Ian Seymour lasted just three innings, allowing three runs and two homers after giving up a career-high tying six runs in his previous start.

Rays LHP Shane McClanahan (8-5, 2.83 ERA) was set to face RHP Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54) in the series finale Sunday.

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Tampa Bay Rays' Yandy Díaz, right, is tagged out by Boston Red Sox's Carlos Narváez, left, while trying to score on a double hit by Jonny DeLuca in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ian Seymour, right, prepares for the next batter as Boston Red Sox's Wilyer Abreu, back left, rounds the bases on a solo home run in the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Boston Red Sox's Jahmai Jones celebrates after his two-run home run in the second inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Boston Red Sox's Wilyer Abreu, right, is congratulated by Willson Contreras after hitting a solo home run in the third inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, July 18, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

MIAMI (AP) — A famous Cuban dissident artist and musician, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.

Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement — named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

He was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.

Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.

His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.

Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara's release would prompt insistence that Pérez also be set free.

Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.

Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara reacts after arriving at Miami International Airport on Saturday, July 18, 2026, after serving a five-year prison sentence in Cuba. (AP Photo/David Santiago)

Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrives at Miami International Airport on Saturday, July 18, 2026, after serving a five-year prison sentence in Cuba. (AP Photo/David Santiago)