Things began promisingly sufficient.
Coming off a few walk-off losses in San Francisco, the Red Sox took the lead nearly instantly in Monday’s sequence opener in opposition to the Seattle Mariners. Jarren Duran led off the sport with a stroll, stole second and got here all the best way round to attain after forcing a pair of dangerous throws from the Mariners protection.
As it turned out, that was almost all of the offense the Red Sox might muster all night time.
Boston’s bats fell silent once more on Monday, and although the rating was shut all through the wheels in the end got here off late because the Mariners raced previous the Red Sox 6-2. The membership wasted a superb efficiency by Nick Pivetta and was in the end undone by a pair of Cal Raleigh solo residence runs and by a four-run Mariners rally within the eighth that put the sport out of attain.
The outcome was probably the most deflating losses of the season, which got here lower than a day earlier than Tuesday’s commerce deadline.
The apparent shiny spot of the night was Pivetta. With the bullpen depleted following Sunday’s 11-inning loss, the Red Sox shelved their standard opener technique and gave the ball to the right-hander proper out of the gate. Pivetta responded by hanging out 10 over 7.1 wonderful innings, permitting 4 hits with no walks.
“That was huge for us,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned. “He was amazing for us, that was really good, outstanding.”
The drawback, after all, was Raleigh.
The clutch Mariners catcher, who hit a walk-off residence run to formally break Seattle’s 21-year postseason drought final fall, took Pivetta deep with a pair of moonshots to proper discipline. He’s changing into a certifiable Red Sox killer, and in 9 profession video games in opposition to Boston he’s now batting .357 with 4 residence runs, seven RBI and two doubles.
Raleigh’s second residence run got here within the backside of the seventh and put the Mariners forward 2-1, and instantly afterwards the Red Sox squandered a golden alternative to retake the lead. After Rafael Devers singled and Rob Refsnyder walked, Alex Verdugo labored a full-count in opposition to hard-throwing Mariners reliever Andres Munoz earlier than hanging out to finish the highest of the eighth.
Then within the backside of the body issues shortly bought out of hand.
Pivetta went again out to begin the eighth however was pulled with one out at 104 pitches after permitting a double to Cade Marlowe. Cora then gave the ball to left-hander Joe Jacques, who was simply recalled after Joely Rodriguez was positioned again on the injured listing with proper hip irritation, and he subsequently allowed six straight batters to succeed in base. Julio Rodriguez’s two-run single with the bases loaded successfully ended issues, and Eugenio Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez added RBI singles to increase the Seattle lead.
The Red Sox lastly scored one other run on a Justin Turner RBI single within the ninth, however by that time it was too little too late. Turner additionally suffered a left heel contusion after awkwardly stepping on the primary base bag, however Cora mentioned he doesn’t assume the difficulty is something too severe.
“They’re going to check with him but he should be fine,” Cora mentioned.
Boston completed 2 for 11 with runners in scoring place and has now managed solely 10 runs via the primary 4 video games of the street journey. The west coast hasn’t been sort to the Red Sox typically, and total Boston is averaging simply 2.8 runs in 16 video games performed out west.
This has additionally been the Red Sox worst collective hunch since they scored 15 runs in eight video games between June 22-29. The membership went 1-7 throughout that stretch, and the Red Sox might be crossing their fingers issues received’t take that lengthy to show round once more.
First order of enterprise, get again within the win column on Tuesday. Brayan Bello (7-6, 3.66 ERA) is scheduled to get the beginning for Boston, first pitch is scheduled for 9:40 p.m.
Source: www.bostonherald.com