It’s like a bad movie that’s playing on a loop all season for the Red Sox.
Whenever it seems like they’re producing some positive momentum, their pitching staff comes around to ruin it all. It happened again Sunday, as an early lead was erased in the blink of an eye in a 10-8 loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park in a game that lasted four hours and 23 minutes.
The takeaways as the Red Sox dropped the five-game series and their 28th game of the season, the most in MLB:
Pitching staff collapses again
It tells almost the whole story of the season that on Sunday, the Red Sox trotted out their 13th different starter in their first 42 games of the season.
Andrew Triggs actually wasn’t horrible, striking out four and allowing one run on three hits in three innings, but that’s the problem. When your starters continuously only go three or four innings, bad things happen. That’s what happened Sunday, as Matt Hall, freshly called up from the alternate training site, turned a 4-1 Red Sox lead into a 7-4 deficit with a disastrous fifth inning.
Hall pitched a scoreless fourth, but things got ugly quickly in the fifth, as he allowed five consecutive batters to reach as Joe Panik tied the game on a two-run single. Two batters later, Derek Fisher produced the go-ahead run with a soft dribbler to Hall, who couldn’t handle it. That ended the day for Hall, who was charged with six runs.
It was just another day for Red Sox pitching, which gave up 15 hits and matched a season high with nine walks.
“When you’re scuffling you try to pick on the corners and it usually doesn’t go that well when you’re trying to pick,” Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said. “So we’re picking too much. That’s what happened today. We’re not getting balls in the zone and getting ahead of people and I know some of their guys are tough and hitting us hard.”
Jose Peraza struggles in left field
Left field has never been Jose Peraza’s primary position, and it continued to show on Sunday. The usual second baseman was forced into action early, when right fielder Yairo Muñoz left the game in the first after straining his hip. Jonathan Arauz entered the game at second, and with Alex Verdugo out on Sunday for a scheduled off day, J.D. Martinez moved to right and Peraza went to left. The results were not beneficial.
The Red Sox trailed 5-4 in the fifth when Robinson Leyer came on to relieve the struggling Hall. With two outs, Cavan Biggio lifted a high fly to deep left at the wall, but Peraza mistimed his jump and completely missed the ball as it bounced off the wall. It was an easily catchable ball that cost the Red Sox two runs as Biggio advanced for a double.
With Andrew Benintendi still on the injured list and Kevin Pillar traded, the Red Sox are down to secondary options to fill an outfield spot next to Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr., with Muñoz, Martinez, Peraza and even Tzu-Wei Lin as manager Ron Roenicke’s choices, but it’s becoming clear that Peraza, who hasn’t looked comfortable in the outfield in his limited time there, should be the last of those options.
Offense continues to be bright spot
The Red Sox offense is actually starting to consistently produce. If only it could get help from the pitching staff.
For a second consecutive day, the offense produced an early lead only for the bullpen to blow it. Kevin Plawecki, who’s proven to be a nice pickup as the backup catcher, continues his strong offensive year with his first home run of the season, a three-run shot in the first, and Bobby Dalbec added his third homer of the year to give the Sox an early 4-1 lead.
When the Red Sox went down, the offense fought back in the eighth. Xander Bogaerts hit a homer for a second consecutive day before Peraza smoked one over the Green Monster, which made it a 10-8 game. But they couldn’t overcome the deficit.
“We’re scoring early which is great, you always want to do that,” Roenicke said. “And then we’re not giving up, so if we get behind and keep coming back, then that’s really good signs. I’m hoping we can continue this and it’s fun. When the energy on the team is because of the offense, that’s what brings excitement, that’s what brings energy and when you have that, it’s fun going through games.”
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September 07, 2020 at 05:34AM
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Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 8: Bullpen melts down in another brutal performance - Boston Herald
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