Red Sox Notes: Boston Unable To Combat ‘Buzzsaw’ In Loss Vs. Rays

The Boston Red Sox couldn’t hang with the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, ultimately resulting in a series loss.

Falling 3-1, the root cause of Boston’s misfortunes, particularly at the plate, was Tampa Bay right-hander Tyler Glasnow. While the Rays racked up 17 strikeouts against Red Sox hitters, Glasnow was responsible for 14 of them. That made for an ongoing divot (through six innings) that Boston couldn’t climb out of.

“Just ran into a buzzsaw today of Glasnow, he’s one of the best pitchers in the game,” Triston Casas told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We didn’t expect to come out and score seven off of him and get him out in four innings. We got his pitch count up, got him out in six and we battled there at the end.”

Casas added: “I like where we’re at in terms of our lineup.”

The Red Sox only managed to scrap across five base hits on the night, while not a single Boston batter was able to record multiple. The remaining lineup members who went hitless combined to go 0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts. That, coupled with an 0-for-8 showing with runners in scoring position, made a comeback bid improbable as the innings continued.

Getting caught in Glasnow’s quicksand, the Red Sox drew just one walk.

Moving forward, the Red Sox are working against not only the rest of the American League amid a tight wild-card race, but their limited time left.

“This week is gonna be huge for us,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Regardless of what people think, I’m very pleased with the way we played today.”

Boston dropped to five games out in the AL Wild Card race, and with 22 games left to go the urgency levels continue to rise with October contention anything but a sure thing for the Red Sox.

That’s understood within the locker room.

“It’s hard but let’s be honest, we haven’t played good baseball either,” Cora explained, per NESN. “We put ourselves in a bad spot in certain weeks. We just gotta keep grinding. We wanna get to the next level, we wanna make it.”

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Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Red Sox-Rays game:
— Through Boston’s six-game road trip, in which the Red Sox went 3-3, the offense recorded a .231 batting average and scored 32 runs. In allowing 35 runs to opponents through the stretch, the starters notched a 7.36 ERA.

— When facing the Rays this season, the Red Sox fell to 2-9.

— Casas, who finished 1-for-4 at the plate himself, extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He’s batting .417, having already gone 15-for-36 with three home runs, four doubles and 11 RBIs, through the hot streak.

“We’ve been putting together good at-bats. Me personally, I have as well,” Casas explained, per NESN. “I think up and down the lineup, if you look at the amount of pitches everybody’s been seeing, it’s been pretty quality.”

— Boston has gone 3-7 in its last 10 games.

— The Red Sox will next kick off a seven-game homestand, starting against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus 90 minutes of pregame coverage, live on NESN.