The turning point in the Boston Red Sox's 10-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Target Field came in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Red Sox pitching yielded just one hit in the frame, which on the surface would signal nothing threatening. But factor in three crucial mistakes by Boston -- an error, walk and hit batsman -- and the Twins scored four times thanks to a grand slam off the bat of Nick Gordon to seize complete control.
"It's one those we've been fighting in those innings," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "This is where we're at. We know we're better than this, but we haven't proved it over 100-plus games. We haven't been able to have shutdown innings or go to the next level."
Boston grabbed the lead the half inning prior before they coughed it up and things unraveled for them.
A night prior, mental mistakes plagued the Red Sox, and while it wasn't of the same variety, there were plenty of miscues that proved costly this time around.
Alex Verdugo dropped an easy flyball in the right-center gap, which would have been the second out of the inning. Kutter Crawford then issued a free pass before getting replaced by Ryan Brasier, who promptly came in and hit the first batter he faced.
Brasier then served up an 0-2 pitch to Gordon and the left-handed hitting second baseman launched the ball 416 feet to give the Twins a commanding 7-4 lead.
"That's a physical error, of course, but it opened the gates for them," Cora said. "Leadoff guy we get him out, but then after that, it's the snowball effect. When you're not playing good baseball it seems like you almost have to be perfect, right? We don't have margin for errors right now and whenever we make errors, we're paying the price."
Here are more notes from Tuesday's Red Sox-Twins game:
-- Crawford, who was Boston's best pitcher in the month of July, wasn't sharp for a third straight start. The right-hander tossed 4 1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits while striking out five and walking four.
"Didn't execute," Crawford told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "Fell behind too many guys, walked too many people and it's hard to pitch when you're giving up that many free passes."
-- The Red Sox only had two fewer hits than the Twins, but the difference was the long ball. Minnesota smacked three homers while Boston didn't send a single pitch out of the ballpark.
-- Collecting multiple hits in a game is becoming a common occurrence for Xander Bogaerts lately. Bogaerts, who went 2-for-4 in the contest with an RBI, has at least two hits in five out of his last six games
-- After making his MLB debut in the series opener, Zack Kelly was back on the mound for the Red Sox. Kelly pitched the only 1-2-3 inning for Boston, recording one strikeout in the frame.
-- The Red Sox look to avoid the three-game series sweep on Wednesday. First pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, with NESN 360.
