It was a long, long night at the ballpark for the Red Sox.
Boston rallied back from a 5-1 deficit to force extras, only to lose 7-6 to the San Francisco Giants in 15 innings Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
But the Sox lost more than just the game.
J.D. Martinez was removed in the sixth and Sam Travis pinch-hit for the designated hitter. Travis laced a triple just out of the reach of Austin Slater. The pinch-hitter’s helmet flew off as he was rounding second and slid safely into third, but the relay throw from Brandon Crawford caught Travis on the side of the head.
Travis remained down for several minutes but was able to get up and walk off the field under his own power. The team announced Martinez had left groin tightness, and manager Alex Cora offered an update on both of his players after the game, saying Travis was “OK,” but was in concussion protocol, per The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
Martinez is unlikely to play in Wednesday’s contest as he nurses his groin injury, per Speier.
It’s certainly not ideal to lose two players for an unknown period of time. But with just 12 games left in the regular season and the playoffs all but out of reach, shutting them down to risk further injury may be a feasible option.
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Giants game:
— The Red Sox and Giants used a combined 24 pitchers in the game, which tied a Major League Baseball record set by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies on Sept. 15, 2015. There also was a total of 547 pitches thrown.
— Cora said postgame David Price “most likely”‘ will be shut down for the remainder of the season.
“We’ll have to go through the whole process and see how David feels about it,” the manager said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage.
Cora said a final decision would come Wednesday. During his pregame press conference, the second-year skipper noted surgery was an option for the southpaw, who’s been battling a nagging wrist injury.
— Tuesday was Boston’s fourth game that lasted over five hours. The 15 innings took a total of five hours and 54 minutes.
“We didn’t hit with men in scoring position,” Cora said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “… We didn’t pitch well in the beginning, but then we pitched well. We played good defense, but then we didn’t. Honestly, everything in six hours is right there. I was watching. I was like, long game, extra-inning games, using the bullpen, knowing that we have a bullpen day maybe tomorrow. It’s been like that the whole season. That’s how I felt.”
— Brock Holt, Marco Hernandez and Jackie Bradley Jr. all made spectacular defensive plays to keep it close.
— Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, made his Fenway Park debut 36 years after his grandfather last played there. He certainly made it count as he belted a home run in the fourth inning.
“I’m gonna hold onto that one for a while,” Yastrzemski told NESN’s Jahmai Webster after the game.
And did his grandfather stay up for the whole game?
“I think he did. … I think he was up for it.”
