That sound you just heard? That was the Boston Red Sox’s win streak screeching to a halt.
After winning their previous four games, the Sox were shut down 5-1 by the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday in the series opener of a four-game set at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox desperately are trying to gain ground on the Rays in the standings, but now trail Tampa by six games after the loss. Rays starter Yonny Chirinos throughly dominated Boston’s bats, tossing a perfect game through five innings and ultimately finishing his eight-frame outing without allowing a run.
The Red Sox fall to 33-30 with the loss, while the Rays climb to 38-23 with the win.
Here’s how it went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Shhhh.
It was a quiet night for the Sox.
ON THE BUMP
— It was an underwhelming showing from Rick Porcello. At times he looked good, while other times the Rays feasted on him. He logged six innings of work, allowing four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
Following a scoreless first inning, Porcello’s full-count changeup was launched into the Red Sox bullpen by Ji-Man Choi to kick off the second inning, putting Tampa up 1-0.
Porcello finished the inning without issue, then pitched a 1-2-3 third. But he got back into some trouble in the fourth.
Brandon Lowe and Avisail Garcia began the inning with singles, and both moved into scoring position when Porcello threw a wild pitch. After getting a pop out, strikeout and forcing a full count to Kevin Kiermaier, Porcello lost the battle with the center fielder, who singled to right to score two and put the Rays up 3-0. Porcello struck out Willy Adames to end the inning and strand Kiermaier.
The righty tossed a hitless, scoreless fifth, but allowed runs again in the sixth.
Garcia and Choi singled to lead off the inning, then Kiermaier roped a one-out single to left to score Choi and make it 4-0. Adames grounded out, moving the runners to second and third in the process, but Porcello got Mike Zunino to fly out to end the inning and his night.
— Josh Taylor handled the seventh and allowed a hit in a scoreless inning, striking out one.
— Mike Shawaryn made his big league debut, pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning, striking out one. He returned for the ninth and gave up a leadoff solo shot to Kiermaier.
Shawary responded nicely though, striking out the ensuing three batters.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Red Sox couldn’t get anything going, with Chirinos pitching a perfect game through five innings, needing just 50 pitches to do so.
— Once the sixth inning rolled around, the Red Sox picked things up momentarily. Brock Holt led the inning off with a walk to break up the perfect game, then Jackie Bradley Jr. singled the next at-bat to end the no-no. But that’s as far as the Sox’s offense would go. Christian Vazquez flew out, Mookie Betts walked to load the bases, then Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers struck out to end the inning.
— With Chirinos finally out of the game, the Red Sox started scoring.
Benintendi led off the ninth with a double, then Bogaerts hit a shot that just narrowly missed leaving the ballpark, bouncing off the Green Monster and going for a double. Bogaerts’ one-out two-bagger scored Benintendi to cut the Sox’s deficit to 5-1.
However, Michael Chavis flew out and Eduardo Nunez grounded out to end the game.
— Xander Bogaerts led the Red Sox with two hits.
— Benintendi and Bradley each had one hit.
— Betts, Devers, Mitch Moreland, Chavis, Nunez, Holt, Sandy Leon and Vazquez all went hitless.
TWEET OF THE DAY
This was nice, at least.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox and Rays will play a double-header Saturday. First pitch for Game 1 from Fenway Park is set for 1:05 p.m. ET.
