In the matter of less than one hour on Tuesday, it went from bad to ugly for the Red Sox, and then to a point where their playoff hopes could be severely impacted.
As the fundamentally inept Red Sox gave up six runs in a disastrous third inning at Tropicana Field, the display was so jarring to NESN broadcaster Dennis Eckersley that he couldn’t help but reveal the harsh truth as they made mistake after mistake.
“I didn’t think it could get any uglier, and it did,” Eckersley said.
Then, it got even worse.
An inning later, it was announced that All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was pulled from the game suddenly in the second inning, had tested positive for COVID-19, making him the seventh Red Sox player to be forced out of action (six positive tests, one close contact) because of their ongoing outbreak. In addition to their ugly 8-5 loss to the first-place Rays, it was the biggest blow of a nightmare night in Florida, where the Red Sox turned the calendar to September with a grim outlook.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Cora said. “Like I said (Monday) and I’m going to keep saying it, they’re not going to stop the tournament for the Red Sox, we know that. We’ve got to figure this out, show up tomorrow, play good baseball, do it the next day, and then go home, and see where we’re at.”
The Red Sox (75-59), who lost their third in a row, still hold a one-game lead for the second wild-card spot, but it might not be for long without Bogaerts for at least 10 days and any other player who might hit the shelf due to COVID.
But as big of a loss that Bogaerts might be, especially with 28 games to go, Cora won’t lose faith.
“Obviously Xander, he’s the leader of the team,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best shortstops if not the best shortstop in the league. We’re going to miss him. But we still have our pitching staff, we still have some capable guys that can swing the bats. We’ll talk about what we’re going to do.”
On the field, the Red Sox regressed to a version of their 2020 selves on Tuesday night. They opened the game with two pitchers, Brad Peacock and Stephen Gonsalves, who weren’t even on the active roster at the beginning of this week, and they contributed to one of the worst innings in recent memory.
Cora has been preaching fundamentals since spring training, but it hasn’t seemed to get through as his Red Sox constantly make sloppy mistakes. The misery continued in the third.
The game was tied at 1 going into the bottom of the third when everything went south. Peacock walked Kevin Kiermaier to begin the inning, then hit Francisco Mejia with a pitch. He induced Brandon Lowe into a deep fly ball to center for the first out, but a lousy throw from Alex Verdugo allowed both runners to advance into scoring position.
That was just the beginning. A walk to Nelson Cruz loaded the bases before Wander Franco lined a single to right. It initially only produced one run, but Hunter Renfroe’s throw to first got by Bobby Dalbec and rolled, allowing a second runner to score.
That ended Peacock’s night, but not the bad baseball. In his first at-bat against Austin Meadows, Gonsalves threw a wild pitch that made it 4-1. Then, Meadows hit a single to right to make it 5-1 before Gonsalves hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch.
Joey Wendle flew out for the second out before the Red Sox put the cherry on top of their horrendous inning, as Yandy Diaz hit a pop fly to right for what should have easily been caught for the third out. But the ball somehow dropped in between Renfroe and second baseman Yairo Munoz in short field, allowing two runners to score for a 7-1 Rays’ lead.
“Keep working,” Cora said. “That’s all we can do, keep working. Obviously, it hasn’t been good the whole season. Today at one point we were very young and guys that haven’t played together, but that’s not an excuse. You still have to catch the ball. That’s very important. We’ll keep working with them. Hopefully it gets better.”
The Red Sox have crushed Ryan Yarbrough in their three games against him this season but couldn’t manage much off him Tuesday. J.D. Martinez doubled in the first and Bogaerts scored him on a two-out single, and Kyle Schwarber homered in the sixth, but that was it as Yarbrough kept them at bay for six strong innings.
The Red Sox rallied with two runs in the ninth to make it a three-run game, but with two runners on and one out, Travis Shaw and Rafael Devers struck out to end the game.
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September 01, 2021 at 09:31AM
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Red Sox suffer nightmare night, lose Xander Bogaerts in ugly loss to Rays - Boston Herald
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