Red Sox Notes: Offense, Bullpen ‘Not Good’ In Loss Vs. Nationals

The Red Sox had defeated the Nationals in six straight contests heading into Wednesday night’s game at Nationals Park and in the pitchers’ duel, Washington came out on top defeating Boston to end the streak.

The Red Sox offense just couldn’t get anything going against Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore. Boston managed one hit and two walks off the lefty while striking out seven times.

It wasn’t until the eighth inning that the Red Sox showed any type of life when Pablo Reyes tied the game with an impressive two-run bomb off Jordan Weems.

Unfortunately for Boston, Garrett Whitlock gave the lead, and eventually the game, right back to Washington after giving up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the inning. The Nationals would wind up with the 6-2 win.

Whitlock was obviously upset with himself and the results.

“Not good,” Whitlock said of his performance, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

In just his second appearance coming off the injury list, Whitlock gave up three hits, two home runs and four runs while striking out one and hitting a batter in one inning of work.

“He wasn’t able to locate,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “… It’s gonna happen. He’s not perfect. So we just got to turn the page. … It was just a bad outing.”

Cora added that starter James Paxton did his part on the mound allowing two runs on five hits in 6 1/3 innings of work, but the offense couldn’t solve Gore.

“When you give your team a chance to win the game, we have to take advantage of it, and we didn’t,” Cora said.

Paxton threw 67.3% of his pitches for strikes (62-of-92 pitches) and his only two mistakes were a curve ball home run to former Red Sox infielder Michael Chavis in the third and a fourth-inning home run to Stone Garrett off the cutter.

Paxton noted that he is struggling with his off-speed pitches, especially his cutter, and wasn’t as sharp as he’d like to be.

“Just hasn’t been there lately,” Paxton told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s been a little bit, and I’m working to figure it out. Hopefully, it gets there because that’s a good strikeout pitch.”

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Red Sox-Nationals game:

— Reyes continues to make an impact when he is in Boston’s lineup. The infielder is slashing .321/.360/.443 on the season with 33 hits in 103 at-bats.

“He puts in good at-bats,” Cora said. “… He gives himself a chance and that’s the most important thing.”

— The Red Sox are Major League Baseball-best 307-218 all-time in interleague play and the only team in history with 300 wins.

— The Red Sox fell to 22-43 when their opponent scores first and 7-40 when they record less than four runs.

— The Red Sox will close out and win their series against the Nationals on Thursday afternoon before heading to the Bronx to face the Yankees on Friday night. NESN’s full coverage of the game from Nationals Park begins at 3:00 p.m. ET.