On the bright side, the Boston Red Sox finally scored some runs.
Unfortunately, the end result was the same as the Red Sox dropped their ninth consecutive game with a 6-5 loss in 15 innings to the Tampa Bay Rays. While none of the losses have been particularly enjoyable for this ball club, this might have been the most agonizing of them all.
The Red Sox looked like a different team as their bats came alive in the first inning to the tune of five runs. With David Ortiz, Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino all sidelined with various injuries, Boston’s lineup wasn’t exactly traditional, but for one glorious inning, it worked.
Until it didn’t.
The Rays slowly but surely chipped away at starter Jake Peavy and the five-run deficit until they tied the game in the fifth inning. With Boston holding onto a 5-2 lead, David DeJesus, Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce combined for consecutive singles to tack on another run. Brandon Guyer then battled back from being down 0-2 in the count to send a Peavy curveball off the wall in left field to bring in two more runs and knot the score at five apiece.
While the Rays were busy putting together timely hits and producing with runners in scoring position, the Red Sox were busy being held hitless by David Price, who buckled down after his rocky first inning. Price didn’t allow another hit following the first frame until giving up a bloop single to Xander Bogaerts in the eighth inning. But the Red Sox, determined to snap their skid, hung on until things unraveled in the bottom of the 15th inning.
James Loney led off the 15th with a single off Andrew Miller. Cole Figueroa came on to run for Loney, and he advanced to second on Guyer’s bunt single that Miller and Brock Holt let settle in between them when they failed to communicate on who was making the play. The miscues only continued when Miller fielded a ground ball and threw it into center field just a tad too quick and allowed the winning run to score.
“I just turned around and went to go throw like instinct,” Miller told reporters after the game. “You spin around and as you start to see everything unfold, at the last second, I didn’t feel like I had a play, just didn’t have anybody getting to the bag, and I just didn’t have time to hold on to the ball.”
The Red Sox have now dropped nine straight, their longest losing streak since 2001.
“When things are going bad, they’re going bad,” Peavy, who went six innings and allowed five runs on eight hits, said of his performance. “We can’t catch a break. To make David Price throw 30 pitches and give up five (in the first) and not win that game is frustrating.”
Photo via Twitter/@RedSox
