Red Sox Notes: Christian Arroyo Takes Blame For ‘Inexcusable’ Play In Loss

The Red Sox couldn’t find their offense in the rubber match against the Giants, and San Francisco capitalized on Boston’s mistakes to win the series at Oracle Park on Sunday.

One costly mistake came on the base path in the seventh inning, Boston was trailing 2-1 when Christian Arroyo was doubled off at second when Triston Casas flied out to center.

“Obviously, in that situation, you can’t get doubled off,” Arroyo said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “There’s no excuse for it.”

Arroyo praised Justin Turner for putting the Red Sox ahead 3-2 in the eighth with his 17th home run of the season, but continued to take the blame for his part in the loss.

“Hell of a job by JT to put us ahead late after that (play) kind of picked me up,” Arroyo said. “… (Luis) Matos made a great play, but that’s just inexcusable. There’s really no way to put it. I have to be better.

“There’s a lot of facets of the game right now that I need to be better in and that’s just an inexcusable play. Like I said, JT picked me up. Later, couldn’t come up with the win but it’s just inexcusable.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Arroyo needed to get back on the play, but recognizes the team struggled as a whole in the two final games of the series.

“We struggled offensively the last few days obviously,” Cora said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think we were 1-for-9, 1-for-11 with men in scoring position today. When you don’t cash in, that’s going to happen.”

Despite the struggles at the plate, Cora is not worried long-term.

“Two bad days, let’s not make a big deal out of it,” Cora said. “Some of the big boys didn’t swing the bat well and that was it.”

Here are more notes from Sunday’s Red Sox-Giants game:

— Turner’s eighth-inning bomb was his 16th against the Giants and the fans in San Francisco let the 38-year-old feel their wrath whenever he stepped up to the plate.

“I had a pretty warm welcome all three days,” Turner said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “But obviously that means I’m doing something right. I played against them for nine years with the Dodgers and they weren’t booing me. Probably means I never did anything good against them.”

— In the bullpen game, Red Sox pitchers gave up four runs on 11 hits scattered across 11 innings. In just his second game for the Red Sox, Mauricio Llovera earned the loss by giving up the walk-off single to Joc Pederson after loading the bases. Llovera was acquired in a trade prior to Saturday’s loss to the Giants.

— With the loss, the Red Sox dropped to 20-13-2 in series play, 4-4 in walk-off games, 1-2 on the road in extra innings and 19-37 when opponents score first.

— Nick Pivetta will make his way back into the rotation at least for one game when the right-handed makes the start on Monday against the Mariners. The Red Sox travel to Seattle to take on the Mariners in a three-game series at T-Mobile Park on Monday. NESN’s full coverage of the series opener begins at 8:30 p.m. ET.