The Boston Red Sox put their resilience on full display, nearly pulling off a stunning comeback against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
After the Reds substituted José Barrero, which ended up being the game-deciding move from Cincinnati skipper David Bell. Barrero, in his first at-bat of the night in the seventh inning, launched a moonshot grand slam to boost the scoring deficit to 8-0 for the Red Sox.
Yet, the offense, while sluggish to begin, fought back to assemble a five-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning to position themselves for a heroic walk-off base knock. But it never arrived, instead resulting in a 9-8 Red Sox loss, the team's sixth in their last eight games.
"I think we were short to the ball and hit line drives. We were trying to hit too much," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "I think we're getting caught up in sometimes in hitting the ball in the air and I think in (the ninth inning) it was a very simple approach. We put the ball in play and good things happened. Hopefully, we can take that going into tomorrow and keep getting momentum offensively."
Boston finished with 14 base hits to Cincinnati's 12, totaling six extra-base hits, but ultimately waited too long to push forth a comeback bid. The Red Sox also committed two errors and a base-running mistake, all of which were capitalized on by the Reds.
Cora also ran with a lineup featuring seven left-handed batters and had no regrets about that call afterward.
"I think that's the best lineup that we can put out there. Splitting (Justin) Turner and (Kiké) Hernández, you know, hitting seventh and having those two lefties in between them," Cora explained. "It helped us with a few things. ... We like what we're doing."
Here are more notes from Tuesday's Red Sox-Reds game:
-- Masataka Yoshida has finished with multiple base hits in three consecutive games, which is the third time he's done so this season with the Red Sox.
-- Rafael Devers, who went 2-for-5 with two RBIs, recorded his 500th RBI. That made Devers the 35th player in Red Sox history to reach that feat and the fourth youngest behind Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr and Jim Rice. Devers noted that the night served as a confidence boost after going 2-for-24 in his previous six games.
"I know the past few weeks hasn't been very consistent in my part, but I need to make the adjustments and that's what I've been trying to do and today was a good sign," Devers said through a translator, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage.
-- Ramiel Tapia went 3-for-5, finishing a home run shy of hitting for the cycle while also recording his 500th career hit.
-- Boston has totaled nine-plus base hits in 12 of their last 13 home games.
-- The Red Sox are Reds will face off again on Wednesday night. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
