How low can it get for the Red Sox?
They walked off the Fenway Park subject Saturday adopted by boos after one other evening of distress and one other pitiful loss. The season began a month in the past and there are already too lots of them to depend.
This one adopted an all-too-familiar script. Lifeless offense? Check. A blown ninth-inning lead? Check. An extra-innings loss? Check. It was the identical previous story in a 3-1 loss to the White Sox, clinching their sixth consecutive sequence loss.
The Red Sox led 1-0 within the ninth – behind Rafael Devers’ RBI double within the fifth – when Hansel Robles got here in to attempt to lock down a wanted save for a struggling bullpen. But it went south shortly.
Robles walked the leadoff batter, Jake Burger, earlier than Adam Engel went the opposite approach on a double down the left line that rolled to the wall and put each runners in scoring place with one out. It took only a sacrifice fly from Leury Garcia, who hit one to proper that scored Burger for the tying run, to increase the sport.
The Red Sox have now blown an MLB-leading ninth save this season, which incorporates 5 within the ninth inning or later.
Robles stored it a tied sport, nevertheless it didn’t matter. The Red Sox had an opportunity for a walk-off victory with two runners in scoring place and one out within the backside half, however the struggling Bobby Dalbec struck out once more, and Trevor Story chased on the first pitch and popped as much as ship the sport to extras.
In the tenth, Matt Barnes – recent off his greatest outing of the season Friday evening – coughed up two runs because the White Sox led off with a go-ahead RBI double from Jose Abreu and RBI single by Luis Robert.
The two-run lead was greater than sufficient of a cushion. Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez all went down because the Red Sox (10-18) fell to 0-6 in additional innings video games this season.
The Red Sox entered Saturday in final place within the American League East and their outlook appeared even bleaker within the third inning, when supervisor Alex Cora was tossed for arguing a borderline strike three name on Story.
But the lack of their supervisor didn’t precisely mild a fireplace underneath the Red Sox.
The Red Sox wasted Nick Pivetta’s greatest begin of the season, although he didn’t have his greatest fastball and allowed his justifiable share of visitors on the bases, however he made outs when he wanted – hanging out a season-high eight batters – and perhaps much more importantly, he didn’t stroll anybody for a second consecutive outing.
Pivetta needed to battle by way of some tough wind circumstances at Fenway Park – with gusts as much as 35 mph at first pitch – which price him a baserunner within the third inning when Leury Garcia hit a routine fly ball to left that died within the wind and swirled again towards the infield, forcing Alex Verdugo to dive and in the end not make the catch for a single. Pivetta hit the subsequent batter, Tim Anderson with a pitch, however responded with back-to-back strikeouts of AJ Pollock and Abreu, each taking a look at fastballs.
Pivetta labored round a pair of singles within the fifth and a leadoff single within the sixth however in any other case wasn’t threatened a lot by the White Sox, holding them to 0-for-6 with males in scoring place. He completed his outing with a strikeout of Gavin Sheet, and confirmed some emotion as he walked off the mound.
Red Sox starters have been the shining mild in a boring season up to now. After Pivetta’s efficiency Saturday, they’ve produced a 1.90 ERA of their final 16 begins, a span of 80 2/3 innings.
They didn’t get a lot assist from the offense, which had one other quiet day. They broke by way of within the fifth because of a one-out rally began by Franchy Cordero, who singled earlier than Story walked to convey up Devers, who introduced Cordero dwelling on an RBI wall-ball double to left.
Source: www.bostonherald.com