Night after night it’s the same story.
The Red Sox play a close game and give themselves a chance to win, only to shoot themselves in the foot with poor defense, questionable decision-making and erratic situational hitting.
That’s how its gone throughout the season, so its fitting the Red Sox ran back the same script again to officially put a bow on the first half.
Ill-timed defensive miscues sunk the Red Sox again in Wednesday night’s 6-2 loss to the Miami Marlins, who capitalized on a series of mistakes to score three runs in the top of the sixth. The loss dropped Boston to 40-41 at the season’s halfway point, and the Red Sox have now lost six of their last seven.
The trouble started after Nick Pivetta, who had been dominant since coming on in the third inning as a bulk reliever, walked a pair to put two men on with one out in the sixth. His outing was then abruptly cut short by a rainstorm, but the walks proved costly after the game resumed following a 73-minute delay.
Josh Winckowski took over and struck out Jazz Chisholm for the second out, but then he walked Garrett Cooper to load the bases and allowed the go-ahead run to score from third on a wild pitch. Things snowballed the following batter when Jean Segura knocked a tapper over Winckowski’s head that rookie shortstop David Hamilton couldn’t handle, allowing two more runs to score.
Just like that it felt like the Red Sox were toast.
Offensively the Red Sox didn’t do themselves any favors. Rafael Devers crushed a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, but outside of that the Red Sox only had one other baserunner reach second through the first eight innings.
Boston finally got something going in the bottom of the ninth, with Devers, Adam Duvall and Jarren Duran recording three straight singles to score a run and make things interesting, but Masataka Yoshida came on to pinch hit and grounded into a game-ending double play to wrap things up.
The one bright spot of the night was Pivetta, who has proven himself a valuable multi-inning weapon since moving to the bullpen. He’s now posted a 2.70 ERA in 20 innings over 12 relief outings, and after taking over for opener Kaleb Ort in the third he mowed the Marlins down, striking out seven hitters over 3.1 innings.
Ort allowed one run over two innings, including a solo home run to Cooper in the second, and rookie Chris Murphy served up a towering solo shot to Chisholm in the eighth and allowed a run-scoring groundout by Luis Arraez in the ninth. The Marlins leadoff hitter finished 1 for 5, dropping his batting average for the season to .396.
Outside of Devers (2 for 4, home run) the only Red Sox hitters to enjoy a decent night were Rob Refsnyder (2 for 4) and Duran, who went 2 for 2 with an RBI after pinch hitting in the seventh while also recording his 15th stolen base.
Boston has now officially lost the series and will turn to Brayan Bello (5-4, 3.27 ERA) in order to avoid the sweep on Thursday. Miami will send Jesus Luzardo (6-5, 3.77) to the mound, and the game will start an hour earlier than normal at 6:10 p.m.