When Xander Bogaerts speaks, the Red Sox listen. And when their All-Star shortstop more or less described Sunday night as a must-win game, even with two months left in the season and well within the playoff picture, it spoke to a sudden level of urgency they’re starting to feel.
The Red Sox have seemed to bounce back whenever their backs have been against the wall this season. But this time, they couldn’t come through.
This weekend began as the Red Sox made minimal activity at the trade deadline as their top competitors got better. It ended as they watched one of them rip the division lead away from them, suffering a three-game series sweep to the Rays with a 3-2 loss on Sunday night at Tropicana Field.
Facing a four-game losing streak for the first time this season, the Red Sox are suddenly 1 1/2 games back of the Rays in the American League East and just four games ahead of the Yankees in the loss column. There’s plenty of season left, but the Red Sox find themselves in serious need of some positive momentum.
“I really don’t think there’s room for panic here,” said Nick Pivetta. “We’ve played incredible baseball up to this point. It’s a 162-game season and we’ve just got to kind of grind through this and move on to Detroit. I think we go out and we win the series against them and we just kind of move on from there.”
Though he lasted only 4 2/3 innings, Pivetta and the bullpen gave the Red Sox a chance on Sunday night. But a Red Sox offense that has largely struggled over the last several games was unable to cash in, magnified by a game-ending fly out by J.D. Martinez, who had the tying run at third base after a two-out ninth inning rally.
“Today was our best game,” said manager Alex Cora said. “That’s more like it. They scored three runs. We had traffic. We didn’t push them to the plate, but overall, I’m pleased with this game. We had J.D. with first and third and a chance to tie the game. It just didn’t happen.”
Pivetta has had an up and down first year in Boston, but he’s dominated the Rays. He threw five shutout innings against them in his first start of the season and followed that up with 6 2/3 no-hit innings on June 24 before he was taken out after 100 pitches.
When the Red Sox needed it the most on Sunday night, he picked up where he left off as he started his outing in control. But the Rays took advantage of the right-hander’s unforgivable mistake, when he walked No. 9 hitter Mike Zunino. The hot-hitting Brandon Lowe made Pivetta pay by blasting his two-out, full-count hanging slider to the right-field seats for a two-run homer, ending Pivetta’s run of 14 1/3 consecutive shutout innings against the Rays.
“It wasn’t really competitive on my part,” Pivetta said of the walk. “Just kind of missed my spots on that same standpoint. So it wasn’t good and then Lowe put a good swing on a hanging breaking ball.”
Despite looking good early, Pivetta only lasted 4 2/3 innings. He allowed a leadoff single in the fifth to Wander Franco, who then advanced on a wild pitch. Manuel Margot proceeded to give the Rays a 3-1 lead with his RBI single to center and after getting two consecutive outs, Pivetta was pulled at 76 pitches before seeing Lowe a third time.
Hunter Renfroe hit a missile for a home run but the Red Sox couldn’t come through on several big opportunities. Alex Verdugo’s leadoff double in the seventh ultimately yielded a run on a wild pitch thrown by Drew Rasmussen, but the Rays bullpen continued to lock them down. The Red Sox finished the night 1-for-18 with runners on base, including 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Once again, the Red Sox’ 2-3-4 hitters failed to get things going as Rafael Devers, Martinez and Bogaerts combined to go 1-for-10 with two walks. It was particularly frustrating for Martinez, who went 0-for-5 and 1-for-14 on the weekend.
The Red Sox will get an off day in Detroit before a three-game series against the lowly Tigers, which Cora said will allow them to reset. Even with 55 games to go, a bounce-back this week is desperately needed.
“We’ve done it the whole season,” Cora said. “We were 0-3 and out of the race after the third game of the season. We had plenty of Opening Days throughout the season. We had to prove ourselves throughout and we’re still here. We know that. It’s just kind of like winning nine games in a row. It’s the same thing. You’re going to get hot, you’re going to go through stretches like this.
“We still have a good team. Like I said after the third game of the season, I still like our team, and when we won nine in a row, I said I still like our team. Do we have to work for our stuff? Of course. We’re not perfect. Nobody’s perfect in this league. We just have to keep grinding.”
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Red Sox swept by Rays, lose season-high fourth game in a row - Boston Herald
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