The Red Sox were swept for just the second time this season Thursday night.
Boston fell to the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-4, at Tropicana Field after holding a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford continued his impressive form through the first six innings of Thursday's contest. Prior to the seventh inning, the right-hander had gone 16 1/3 innings with 20 strikeouts and only one earned run allowed in his last three starts, per The Boston Globe's Pete Abraham. Crawford had not gone into the seventh inning his Major League career, and the Rays lit him up for three runs before reliever John Schreiber was put in.
Schreiber had not given up a run since May 27, per Abraham. The right-handed reliever had gone 17 1/3 scoreless innings through 19 appearances before giving up two runs Thursday.
The loss puts Boston at 11-24 on the year against American League East opponents and 2-8 in its past 10 games.
The last time the Red Sox were swept this season was against the Chicago White Sox in May. Boston has only been swept in a four-game series eight times since 2000 -- two came in 2020 against the Rays and the New York Yankees, per The Boston Globe's Alex Speier.
Manager Alex Cora was not pleased with the way Boston played Wednesday, and he offered an optimistic outlook on the Red Sox.
"You got to play 27 outs, and they put good at-bats," Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "Actually, I feel better today than yesterday. I think yesterday we beat ourselves. We played good baseball today. They just put good at-bats that inning, but as far as the effort and everything, the at-bats, we were a lot better.
"I know it sucks that we lost and we got swept here, but the way we played today was a lot better. We're still obviously upset that we lost the game, but moving forward, there's a way we should play, and we're going to be okay."
Here are more notes from Thursday's Red Sox-Rays game
-- Alex Verdugo came close to bringing in the tying runs in the ninth inning when the Red Sox were down, 5-3, heading into the final frame. His ball traveled 341 feet, and would have been a home run in nine other ballparks, according to Would It Dong. However, the ball fell short of a homer and the left fielder only earned an RBI double.
-- Boston continues to struggle within the division. They are batting .242 and scoring 3.9 runs a game, and starting pitchers have a 5.22 ERA, while relievers hold a 3.75 ERA, per NESN's postgame coverage. However, Cora believes the Red Sox put in "a better effort" Thursday.
"We'll be okay, we'll be okay," Cora said. "We played some good baseball today. We put up some good at-bats. We battled. I know we lost but, compared to yesterday and the last few days, today was a better effort. I think we played some clean baseball. We made pitches. Obviously, one bad inning but overall, it was a better effort than yesterday."
-- Devers got the offense going with his 20th home run of the year. The Red Sox slugger went 2-for-4 on the night, adding to his AL total in hits to 110.
-- The Red Sox had three doubles (Xander Bogaerts, Rob Refsnyder, Verdugo) and continue to out pace the league in the category with 207 -- the Toronto Blue Jays are second in that stat with 173.
-- Boston will hope to bounce back as it starts a three-game series against the Yankees on Friday. First pitch from Yankee Stadium is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET, and full coverage of the game will be on NESN following an hour of pregame.
