Red Sox Wrap: Poor Defense, Silent Offense Dooms Boston

The Boston Red Sox’s bats went silent in the second game against the Cleveland Guardians as they dropped the 5-2 decision at Progressive Field on Wednesday night.

The Red Sox dropped to .500 on the season with a record of 31-31 while the Guardians improved to 28-33 on the campaign.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Red Sox offense mustered only two runs on five hits while stranding eight base runners in the loss.

With three errors on the night, the Red Sox defense didn’t help Boston’s pitching that allowed four earned runs on 10 hits in the game. Kutter Crawford worked his way into the fourth inning giving up three runs on five hits before giving the ball to the bullpen.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Chris Murphy made his Major League debut in the loss for the Red Sox, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings, surrendering two hits and striking out five. He threw 59.2% of his pitches for strikes (32 of 54 pitches).

— Amed Rosario was solid at the plate for Cleveland going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in the Guardians win.

— After going 0-for-5 in Boston’s win over Cleveland in the series opener, Rafael Devers got the Red Sox on the board first with his first-inning bloop single. Devers finished the game 2-for-4 from the plate and knocked in a run.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set the odds of Connor Wong hitting a double at +480. The catcher hit his 12th double of the season in the second inning to net $100 bettors a $580 payout.

ON DECK AT NESN
The Red Sox will look to win the rubber match in the final game of the series against Cleveland on Thursday. First pitch from Progressive Field is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.