The Red Sox looked poised to win when Chris Sale left the game after eight innings of work and the 3-1 lead. Unfortunately, Boston dropped Saturday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals when closer Kenley Jansen allowed three runs in the top of the ninth inning for the blown save.
For the second straight game, Jansen was tagged for three runs, two earned, by the Cardinals' offense, giving the 35-year-old pitcher his third blown save of the season.
Jansen couldn't seem to find a rhythm on the mound and being called for three pitching violations didn't help with his focus.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Jansen both said on NESN's postgame coverage the umpire called the violation because Jansen got set before the batter had both feet in the batter's box. Jansen said having those violations messed with his concentration and ultimately his game.
"That's clearly, you know, it's just clearly telling me that they mess with me and it pays off," Jansen told reporters.
Despite having the violations, Jansen took responsibility for the outing and not getting the job done to secure the win.
"Obviously, I've had two bad games. That's what I can tell you," Jansen said. "I can be honest with you and that can look bad, but at the end of the day you got to keep continuing to come out here. That's why you get paid for. So, you're gonna come and grind."
Here are more notes from Saturday's Red Sox-Cardinals game:
-- Sale was brilliant on the mound pitching eight innings, while striking out nine batters, giving up one run on three hits. After giving up a home run to Nolan Arenado in the seventh inning, Sale settled down and struck out the next three batters he faced.
"I think, my last outing I let my emotions spill over," Sale told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "And it took my guys behind me to kind of get me back on track and kind of calm me down in that situation. I was honestly thinking about that. I would give up the home run and say, okay this is where you can do this yourself and get back on track."
-- The Red Sox dropped to 1-10 when scoring less than four runs in games this season and fell to 16-1 when holding the lead through six innings.
-- With doubles by Rob Refsnyder, Justin Turner and Pablo Reyes, the Red Sox have 91 on the season, which is a major league best.
-- The Red Sox will look to avoid the sweep when they take the field against the Cardinals on Sunday night. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN.
