One day after playing a game in one hour and 57 minutes, marking the fastest nine-inning game at Fenway Park since 1989, the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels endured a pair of rain delays totaling two hours and 21 minutes.
It made for a long, soggy Monday afternoon -- five hours and 24 minutes, to be exact -- as the Red Sox dropped their annual Patriots' Day matinee 5-4 behind a shaky start from Brayan Bello.
A marathon affair on Marathon Monday. Go figure.
Bello, activated from the injured list before Monday's outing, allowed five runs on eight hits over 2 2/3 innings. He surrendered a three-run home run to Hunter Renfroe in the first inning as the Angels raced out to a 4-0 lead, and the Red Sox never fully recovered despite rallying late in the contest. Bello struck out five and walked one.
One silver lining in Boston's defeat: Kutter Crawford, who tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings in relief.
The performance -- the second-longest appearance by a Red Sox pitcher this season -- kept Boston in the ballgame and prevented the bullpen from being taxed. Crawford allowed only one hit and struck out five. He threw 54 of his 72 pitches for strikes.
"Stuff great. Command great. Efficient," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the game. " ... He was really good tonight."
The Red Sox recently optioned Crawford to Triple-A Worcester to make room for Garrett Whitlock, a somewhat surprising move given how well Crawford pitched in his second start of the season April 9. Boston subsequently recalled Crawford upon placing Zack Kelly on the injured list, though, and Monday's effort went a long way toward proving Crawford's value out of the 'pen. He's likely here to stay.
The start-and-stop nature of Monday's game put a damper on the Shohei Ohtani show, as the Angels replaced him on the mound with Tucker Davidson after a third-inning rain delay lasting one hour and 25 minutes. The Halos led 5-1 at the time, with Ohtani striking out three, walking one and uncorking two wild pitches over two hitless frames.
Boston fell back below .500 (8-9) with the loss, which came on the heels of three straight Red Sox wins to begin their series with the Angels. The Sox next welcome the Minnesota Twins to town for three games, starting Tuesday night.
Here are some more notes from Monday's Red Sox-Angels game.
-- Crawford, who retired 19 of the 21 batters he faced, became the first Red Sox reliever to pitch six-plus innings since Ryan Weber on Aug. 12, 2020.
The last Red Sox reliever to throw six-plus shutout innings: Tim Wakefield, on Sept. 2, 2002.
"It's kinda been a whirlwind, but I know at the end of the day, there's decisions that need to be made with the roster and whatnot," Crawford told reporters of shuttling between Boston and Worcester recently. "But I know no matter what my role is, I have one job to do, and that's to go out there and fill the (strike) zone up and give my team the best chance to win."
-- The Angels' four-run first inning continued a troubling trend for the Red Sox, who keep falling behind early in games. As noted by NESN's Tom Caron, Boston owns the worst first-inning ERA (11.64) in Major League Baseball.
The Boston Globe's Pete Abraham added Monday that Red Sox opponents have slashed .346/518/.666 with seven home runs in the first inning this season. The Red Sox have allowed at least one run in the first inning in 13 of their 17 games so far, with their record being 6-7 in those contests.
-- Jarren Duran, recalled from Worcester before Monday's game, went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and a stolen base in his season debut with Boston.
The 26-year-old also struck out twice, and he might never develop into a Gold Glove-caliber defender in the outfield, but he had been barreling up balls at Triple-A and looks noticeably more comfortable in the box with a revamped stance and swing. We'll see where things go from here.
-- Masataka Yoshida's struggles continued. The newcomer went 0-for-4, including a game-ending popout with the potential tying run at second base and the possible winning run at first base. His average now sits at .186, and it's clear he's having a hard time going the other way, a perceived strength coming into the season.
-- Christian Arroyo grabbed his leg while running down to first base on a groundout. According to Cora, Arroyo believes it's just a cramp, though the Red Sox should know more about his status Tuesday.
-- The Red Sox now are 71-55 all-time on Patriots' Day.
