Red Sox Wrap: Cardinals Best Boston In Early Pitchers’ Duel

The Boston Red Sox dropped another contest, 7-2, to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night at Busch Stadium.

Boston moved to 22-24 with the loss while St. Louis improved to 20-25.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Boston and St. Louis combined for 16 runs Friday night. Saturday brought the tune of a pitchers’ duel for the Red Sox and Cardinals.

Home runs from Nolan Gorman and Rafael Devers, both doing so for the second-straight day, marked the only scoring into the seventh inning. Boston’s defense behind standout plays from Ceddanne Rafaela and Connor Wong helped keep runs off the board in the first and sixth innings.

The Cardinals responded with a sacrifice groundout to take the lead in the seventh inning. Rob Refsnyder provided the answer for the Red Sox, doing more damage against left-handed pitching in the eighth inning to tie the score.

Ultimately, four straight hits against Boston’s Justin Slaten led to a massive inning for the Cardinals that made the final difference, tallying five runs in the eighth.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Devers homered for the fourth time in as many games.

— Kutter Crawford responded well from his last outing, allowing just one earned run in 5 2/3 innings in a bounce-back start.

— Refsnyder’s double evened the score for the Red Sox.

UP NEXT
The Red Sox and Cardinals wrap up their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in St. Louis. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. ET.