BOSTON (AP) — Renato Núñez was starting to wonder if his breakout season would include 30 home runs.
Baltimore's promising young slugger spent nearly three weeks at 29 homers before belting No. 30 on Friday night, a three-run shot that helped lead the Orioles to a 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox.
"I think Noonie's really been pressing trying to get that 30th and I told him he's going to sleep a lot better tonight," manager Brandon Hyde said. "It's a great accomplishment in his first really full year in the majors. Twenty-five years old and hitting 30 is impressive and he hit a big one for us tonight."
Núñez, homerless since Sept. 8, gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead with a line-drive out to left in the third.
"What can I say? It was always in the back of my mind," Núñez said. "I helped my team win. That's what I want."
Núñez added an RBI single in the ninth, driving in all of Baltimore's runs as the Orioles took the opener of the season-ending three-game series for both clubs.
Asher Wojciechowski (4-8) struck out six over six shutout innings for the Orioles, who won for just the 53rd time this season.
"We've been kind of waiting for this type of game. They don't happen very often, where it's smooth," Hyde said.
Baltimore also guaranteed that the Red Sox will finish with a losing record at Fenway Park, adding to the sting of missing the playoffs one year after winning the World Series. The Red Sox fell to 37-40 at Fenway, where they last finished with a losing record in 2014 — when they were also coming off a World Series championship.
Boston will finish with a winning record overall but losing record at home for just the second time in franchise history.
Núñez's three-run shot to left in the third off of Nathan Eovaldi (2-1) was just about all the scoring the Orioles needed.
Eovaldi allowed only three hits, but walked four and the Red Sox never recovered after falling behind on the homer by Núñez on an 0-2 pitch.
"I feel like I threw the ball well tonight," Eovaldi said. "It was just the walks that got me. And also having Nunez right there, 0-2, and then I left it down the middle and he was able to hit it out. That was the difference really."
Xander Bogaerts broke up the shutout with a single up the middle, scoring Rafael Devers, who led off the ninth with a double off Richard Bleier. Although Bleier couldn't preserve the shutout, he picked off Bogaerts for the first out and Boston didn't get another runner on base.