Night after night time it’s the identical story.
The Red Sox play an in depth sport and provides themselves an opportunity to win, solely to shoot themselves within the foot with poor protection, questionable choice making and erratic situational hitting.
That’s how its gone all through the season, so its becoming the Red Sox ran again the identical script once more to formally put a bow on the primary half.
Ill-timed defensive miscues sunk the Red Sox once more in Wednesday night time’s 6-2 loss to the Miami Marlins, who capitalized on a sequence of errors to attain three runs within the high of the sixth. The loss dropped Boston to 40-41 on the season’s midway level, and the Red Sox have now misplaced six of their final seven.
The hassle began after Nick Pivetta, who had been dominant since approaching within the third inning as a bulk reliever, walked a pair to place two males on with one out within the sixth. His outing was then abruptly minimize brief by a rainstorm, however the walks proved pricey after the sport resumed following a 73-minute delay.
Josh Winckowski took over and struck out Jazz Chisholm for the second out, however then he walked Garrett Cooper to load the bases and allowed the go-ahead run to attain from third on a wild pitch. Things snowballed the next batter when Jean Segura knocked a tapper over Winckowski’s head that rookie shortstop David Hamilton couldn’t deal with, permitting two extra runs to attain.
“Those are the plays that we have to make,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned.
Just like that it felt just like the Red Sox had been toast.
Offensively the Red Sox didn’t do themselves any favors. Rafael Devers crushed a solo residence run within the backside of the fourth, however exterior of that the Red Sox solely had one different baserunner attain second by means of the primary eight innings.
“We’re not hitting the ball hard,” mentioned Cora, whose membership has solely scored 11 runs in its final six video games. “It’s been going on for a while, putting in good at bats but not finishing them. We’re struggling offensively right now.”
Boston lastly acquired one thing going within the backside of the ninth, with Devers, Adam Duvall and Jarren Duran recording three straight singles to attain a run and make issues attention-grabbing, however Masataka Yoshida got here on to pinch hit and grounded right into a game-ending double play to wrap issues up.
The one vibrant spot of the night time was Pivetta, who has confirmed himself a useful multi-inning weapon since transferring to the bullpen. He’s now posted a 2.70 ERA in 20 innings over 12 reduction outings, and after taking up for opener Kaleb Ort within the third he mowed the Marlins down, placing out seven hitters over 3.1 innings.
Despite his manufacturing and the membership being right down to 4 beginning pitchers, Cora mentioned they aren’t contemplating transferring him again into the rotation as a result of he’s turn out to be indispensable in his new function. Though Pivetta initially wasn’t pleased in regards to the transfer, Cora mentioned he embraced it “the next day” and Pivetta mentioned he needs to do his half to assist the bullpen succeed.
“The team needs me in that bullpen and we’re doing a tremendous job back there,” Pivetta mentioned. “I think it’s a team effort at the end of the day and as long as I can go out there and do my job and have my other guys come in whenever and feed off that, I think that’s more important.”
Ort allowed one run over two innings, together with a solo residence run to Cooper within the second, and rookie Chris Murphy served up a towering solo shot to Chisholm within the eighth and allowed a run-scoring groundout by Luis Arraez within the ninth. The Marlins leadoff hitter completed 1 for five, dropping his batting common for the season to .396.
Outside of Devers (2 for 4, residence run) the one Red Sox hitters to take pleasure in a good night time had been Rob Refsnyder (2 for 4) and Duran, who went 2 for two with an RBI after pinch hitting within the seventh whereas additionally recording his fifteenth stolen base.
Boston has now formally misplaced the sequence and can flip to Brayan Bello (5-4, 3.27 ERA) with a view to keep away from the sweep on Thursday. Miami will ship Jesus Luzardo (6-5, 3.77) to the mound, and the sport will begin an hour sooner than regular at 6:10 p.m.
Source: www.bostonherald.com