It seemed like the Red Sox had an answer every time the Twins pulled ahead, but when they couldn’t grab the lead in extra innings the writing was on the wall.
Boston’s six-game win streak came to an end Wednesday after the Red Sox lost 5-4 in 10 innings on a walk-off single by Minnesota’s Kyle Farmer. The Red Sox rallied several times to force extras, but the offense couldn’t seem to come up with the big hit to put the Twins away, finishing 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position while stranding nine runners on base.
“We didn’t do much, we had a lot of opportunities and we didn’t cash in,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
After initially taking a 1-0 lead in the first on a Rafael Devers RBI double, the Red Sox came from behind three separate times to tie the game upon falling behind by one run.
First, after Minnesota scored twice in the second to take a 2-1 lead, Justin Turner tied it up in the top of the third with a monstrous 447-foot upper decker. Then Turner came through again in the fifth with an RBI single to make it 3-3, capitalizing on Alex Verdugo’s triple to right.
Finally, after Max Kepler took Garrett Whitlock deep for a solo shot in the sixth, Triston Casas knotted it up at 4-4 with an RBI double to score fellow rookie David Hamilton, who made his MLB debut by pinch running for Masataka Yoshida and who got himself into scoring position by immediately stealing second standing up.
Though it wasn’t his sharpest outing, Whitlock was efficient once again and gave the Red Sox the length they needed to keep the bullpen fresh. He wound up allowing four runs on eight hits over seven innings, striking out six while picking up a badly needed 1-2-3 inning in the seventh to give the offense a chance to rally late.
After Casas tied the game, Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen posted back-to-back 1-2-3 innings to send the game to extras. But once the Red Sox failed to score in the top of the 10th, they immediately found themselves facing long odds.
Minnesota immediately had runners on first and second to start the inning, with the ghost runner being joined by leadoff man Christian Vazquez on an intentional walk to set up a double play. Kaleb Ort then got Michael A. Taylor on a controversial 3-1 play, which was upheld on review despite the speedy Taylor appearing to beat Ort to the first base bag.
That also moved the runners to second and third, and despite the Red Sox shifting everyone in to keep the winning run from scoring, Farmer kept things simple and knocked one into shallow center field for the game-winning single.
A day after allowing three home runs in his latest rough outing, Corey Kluber was shut down and placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. To fill his spot, the Red Sox called up infielder David Hamilton, who had already made the trip to Minnesota in case Pablo Reyes needed to be placed on the IL as well.
Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who served as Boston’s opening day starter, has endured a terrible season and currently has a 7.04 ERA with 17 home runs allowed over 55 innings.
Hamilton was one of the prospects acquired in the Hunter Renfroe trade and tied an organizational record with 70 stolen bases with Portland last season. He was added to the 40-man roster this past offseason and is currently batting .255 with 11 home runs, 27 stolen bases and an .825 OPS with the WooSox. He debuted Wednesday as a pinch runner and is expected to make his first big league start on Thursday.
During the sixth inning catcher Reese McGuire went down in a heap after a swing and immediately came out of the game with the trainer. The Red Sox subsequently announced that he suffered a right oblique strain and Cora said afterwards he will most likely be placed on the IL.
Given that McGuire and Connor Wong are the only catchers on the 40-man roster, the club will need to make a move to add another catcher, either from the WooSox or from outside the organization. Ronaldo Hernandez, Caleb Hamilton and Stephen Scott are the three active catchers with Worcester and the most likely candidates for promotion.
The Red Sox are also expected to call up left-hander Brandon Walter to make his big league debut in Thursday’s series finale, most likely as a bulk reliever following opener Justin Garza, Cora said. The 26-year-old is currently ranked as Boston’s No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline, though he has struggled in his first full year at Triple-A, posting a 6.28 ERA through his first 13 outings (12 starts).
The Twins are scheduled to send Joe Ryan (7-4, 3.30 ERA) to the hill, and first pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET.