BOSTON — If you were looking for a play that perfectly encapsulated the Red Sox’s struggles of the last month or so, Xander Bogaerts and Daniel Nava provided it Thursday night.
Down two runs to the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning, Bogaerts worked a walk, then took off for second on a 2-1 pitch to Nava. Adam Rosales sprinted over to cover the bag, and Nava smoked a ground ball directly into the gap vacated the second baseman.
The ball appeared destined to find the outfield grass, and the Red Sox would have had runners on the corners with one out. Given how precious runs have been of late for Boston, this was a golden opportunity to knock a few in against Rangers starter Wandy Rodriguez.
There was only one problem.
On its way into right-center field, the ball clipped the bottom of Bogaerts’ cleat. The Sox shortstop scampered to third base only to be told that, by rule, he was automatically out.
Sandy Leon struck out in the ensuing at-bat to end the inning, and the Red Sox were held scoreless the rest of the way in an eventual 3-1 loss.
After the game, a clearly frustrated Bogaerts lamented the missed opportunity.
“Probably that play there when I was trying to steal and the ball hit me, that was probably the game-changer,” he said. “I never knew — I never was aware that ball even touched me until when I came back down and I saw on the video that it might have just scratched the bottom of my cleat or something like that. I didn’t know that ball hit me at all.
“… That was first and third right there. The baseball field is so big, and what are the chances the ball is going to hit me under my cleat. Are you kidding me?”
The loss was the Red Sox’s fourth in their last six games, with Boston failing to score more than one run in any of the four.
“We’re in one of those stretches right now where if there’s an oddity that’s going to go against us, it’s happening right now,” manager John Farrell said. “Even in that moment where (Bogaerts) has got a read on Rodriguez’s delivery, gets a good jump, doesn’t even feel the ball clip him — which was basically on the bottom of the foot, but it was clear that the ball was misdirected — and it does go against us.”
Thumbnail screenshot via MLB.com
