BOSTON — The series finale between the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays was ugly.
The Rays had 12 runs on 15 hits with three errors, while the Red Sox had eight runs on 15 hits with one error, and somehow, both teams still left 12 runners on base. But the most disappointing part for Boston was ace David Price failing to go deep thanks to one big inning for the Rays.
Price found himself in some trouble after he gave up a one-out, two-run home run to Rays catcher Curt Casali to make the score 5-4 Red Sox, but what happened after that really made a difference. With second baseman Logan Forsythe on first, Price hit Brandon Guyer with a 1-2 pitch that looked like it could have been a strike if the left fielder wasn’t over the plate. Evan Longoria followed with a two-RBI double.
“That’s a good pitch,” Price said with a smile when asked about the fastball that hit Guyer. “That’s a really good pitch, and to have that be a hit batter, that’s either a strike or it’s a hit batter. And that makes it tough.”
Price said he understands the strategy, but even Red Sox manager John Farrell was scratching his head over the hit by pitch, which actually was the second of the game for Guyer.
“I even asked the home plate umpire, there’s got to be some kind of an attempt, and after the second one, which hit him in the elbow, it looked like even the ball had a chance to be on the edge for a strike,” Farrell said. “That’s always going to be two different views, and unfortunately it ends up obviously in a hit by pitch and a man on base. Mislocated pitches in to right-handers was a little bit of a theme today.”
Still, Price wasn’t about to make any excuses for giving up the five-run lead the Red Sox had in the first inning.
“I don’t enjoy that,” Price said. “I definitely enjoy going out there and doing what I love. That’s not fun for me. I know I’m better than that, and whenever you get five runs in the bottom half of the first inning, that’s unacceptable.”
Here are some more notes from Thursday’s 12-8 loss.
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— If you think Price is a disappointment, though, then you should pump the brakes. Here’s how the start of his 2013 season with the Rays went, courtesy of Baseball Reference.
Price went on to pitch an American League-high four complete games that season and finished with a 3.33 ERA.
— The bullpen came out with the loss again after giving up four runs over the eighth and ninth innings, showing just how taxed the relievers have been. Farrell elected to go with William Cuevas, who made his major league debut, for 2 1/3 innings and said he only would have turned to Koji Uehara if the Red Sox had the lead.
“We had a number of guys that were unavailable, and as a result, we knew we were going to be in a situation where Cuevas was going to have to give us multiple innings if we didn’t get a deep start, and that’s what took place here today,” Farrell said.
— Dustin Pedroia’s third hit of the game in the sixth inning also was the 1,500th of his career. He joined Bobby Doerr as the second Red Sox to reach the milestone while playing primarily at second base.
“(Clay Buchholz) told me,” Pedroia said. “I didn’t even know. Obviously I’m proud of that. Any accomplishment in this game means a lot. Obviously I wish we won the game, so we’ll try to get out there tomorrow and do that.”
So does he think he can reach 3,000?
“If I can find some holes out there, yeah,” Pedroia said. “I mean, shoot, anything’s possible.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports Images
