Kiké Hernández in heart area? Raimel Tapia in left? Yu Chang at second base? Bobby Dalbec at shortstop!?
This, clearly, shouldn’t be what anybody had in thoughts heading into the season.
As accidents maintain piling up it’s getting tougher for the Red Sox to patch collectively a purposeful roster. Wednesday evening issues took a flip for the ridiculous when Masataka Yoshida was scratched because of proper hamstring tightness, forcing the membership to trot out its most unorthodox lineup but.
Even with out a number of of their greatest hitters, the Red Sox nonetheless managed to place collectively certainly one of their greatest offensive performances of the season, however on the finish of the day they didn’t have the firepower to maintain up with the high-powered Tampa Bay Rays, who gained 9-7 to remain unbeaten at 12-0.
Much of the pregame consideration fell on Dalbec, who performed 33 innings at shortstop throughout spring coaching however who had hardly any prior expertise on the place getting into the yr. Naturally the primary two balls put in play discovered their strategy to his glove.
The first he dealt with with ease, throwing out Yandy Diaz for the routine putout, however the second was a sluggish curler to his left that bounced off his glove for an error. Triston Casas had a tough day defensively as properly, at one level failing to cowl first on a security squeeze play, and as they’ve all season the Rays capitalized on each miscue and by no means let up.
“Obviously we played with the personnel that we played today, but still, you know, routine plays we didn’t make,” mentioned Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora. “That’s the part that frustrates me, I guess I’ve got to do a better job coaching them and being on top of it because at this level you can’t do that.”
Two batters after Dalbec’s first-inning error, Randy Arozarena took Chris Sale deep for a three-run house run to make it 3-0. Then within the fourth they loaded the bases with no outs and received all three runners house on a Diaz sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Wander Franco.
Sale allowed six runs (5 earned) over 4 innings, with seven hits, two walks and 6 strikeouts. Coming off final week’s encouraging second begin, it was a notable step backwards for the large lefty.
Meanwhile, Rays rookie Taj Bradley confirmed why he’s broadly considered certainly one of baseball’s prime pitching prospects. The 22-year-old allowed three runs over 5 innings whereas putting out eight in his MLB debut.
Things took a flip for the more serious within the fifth when Zack Kelly went down with an obvious elbow damage. The rookie right-hander instantly crouched down and grabbed his elbow after hitting Diaz with a pitch and was visibly emotional as he left the sport with the coach.
The workforce mentioned afterwards Kelly is coping with “right elbow pain” and he’ll journey with the workforce house on Thursday and get imaging carried out in Boston. Cora indicated they’ll have time to fly one other pitcher all the way down to St. Petersburg for the sequence finale within the meantime.
To their credit score, the Red Sox didn’t roll over and quit regardless of every little thing that was going incorrect.
Trailing 8-3 getting into the sixth the Red Sox received a run again on an RBI groundout by Tapia. Then within the seventh Reese McGuire singled and Hernández doubled after Rays outfielders Manuel Margot and Harold Ramirez almost collided in right-center, permitting the liner to fall in. That arrange Rafael Devers, who went reverse area for a three-run house run to chop the deficit to at least one.
That’s as shut as they’d get. The Red Sox went down 1-2-3 within the prime of the eighth, after which Franco helped stretch the result in 9-7 by hitting his third double of the sport and coming in to attain on an Arozarena sacrifice fly.
Pete Fairbanks received the save within the ninth, permitting a leadoff single to McGuire (3 for 4, two runs) earlier than sending down Yu Chang on a bunt try, Hernández on a flyout and Alex Verdugo on a grounder to second.
The Red Sox (5-7) have now misplaced three straight and 12 in a row at Tropicana Field courting again to final yr, their longest street shedding streak to a single opponent since shedding 17 straight in Minnesota from 1964-66. Boston will look to keep away from the four-game sweep Thursday when Corey Kluber (0-2, 6.48 ERA) faces Jeffrey Springs (2-0, 0.00) for a 1:10 p.m. first pitch.
Source: www.bostonherald.com