BOSTON — The final innings spoke louder than the comeback.
The Red Sox rallied from four runs down Saturday at Fenway Park to tie their game against the Blue Jays 4-4 in the sixth inning. But Boston, in a move representative of the team’s maddening 2015 season, couldn’t build on its momentum in the ensuing innings and Toronto pulled out a 5-4 win in 11 frames.
“It’s competitive. We’re still trying to climb back into games,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said after Saturday’s loss, trying to infuse some optimism into an otherwise frustrating situation. “(Friday’s loss was) a difficult one to swallow after you build a lead that it was. But no, there’s still competitive at-bats, (and) guys are taking the ball and giving everything they’ve got.”
The Red Sox’s seventh-inning threat Saturday couldn’t have been any more fitting. Dustin Pedroia, Brock Holt and Hanley Ramirez loaded the bases with three consecutive singles, yet Boston came away empty handed because neither David Ortiz nor Xander Bogaerts produced a timely hit. Ortiz went down hacking at a 95 mph fastball and Bogaerts flailed at an 0-2 slider from Liam Hendriks.
Both Ortiz (game-tying homer in the sixth) and Bogaerts (RBI single in the fourth) made contributions Saturday. Bogaerts, in particular, has been swinging the bat well. So it wasn’t so much the characters involved in Boston’s wasted seventh-inning opportunity as it was the premise of the Red Sox not rising to the occasion in a big spot. It’s been an all-too-common theme and one that’s almost inexplicable.
“If you look at the team on paper, we’re probably one of the best in the game,” Bogaerts said. “But we haven’t showed that on the field. That’s all that matters.
“You see the team on paper and it’s a really good one, a very stable one and, like I said, no one expected us to be in the position that we’re in right now. But that’s the reality.”
If squandering a bases-loaded threat wasn’t emblematic enough, the eighth inning provided another snapshot of just how deep the Red Sox’s issues run. Jeff Bianchi, Alejandro De Aza and Rusney Castillo — three players not on the Opening Day roster — hit into three straight groundouts against Hendriks while Mike Napoli remained on the bench.
The reason Napoli didn’t pinch-hit in the inning? His offensive issues have become so troublesome that Farrell decided the first baseman absolutely needed a day off.
Sitting Napoli to start the game is OK. In fact, it’s probably a good idea given how uncomfortable he’s looked at the plate of late. But for a team trying desperately to salvage its season in the middle of June, rolling with a utility man/four-A player (Bianchi) and a recently acquired fourth outfielder-type (De Aza) over a proven quantity with game-changing power who’s earning $16 million this season (Napoli) in the eighth inning of a tie game because the last-mentioned needed a mental breather is very telling when it comes to assessing the severity of Boston’s current predicament.
The Sox even used Blake Swihart as a pinch-hitter for Sandy Leon in the ninth inning rather than pinch-hitting Napoli for Leon and inserting Swihart as a defensive replacement.
The Blue Jays ultimately delivered the big blow in the 11th inning, when Matt Barnes, whose season has come crashing down in the last week, surrendered a solo homer to Russell Martin. Barnes mislocated a 96 mph fastball in a 2-0 count and Martin peppered the light tower located atop the Green Monster in left-center field.
The Red Sox, who appeared to hit rock bottom Friday night when they blew a seven-run lead en route to a 13-10 loss, keep finding new ways to lose games. And the most disheartening aspect of the whole mess is that it’s difficult to pinpoint one fatal flaw, as a different deficiency seems to crop up each night.
Is the season over? You can be the judge of that. But things sure aren’t looking good with 99 games left.
Thumbnail photo via Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images
