BOSTON — The day started off on a high note for the Red Sox but didn’t end quite the same way.
The Red Sox announced a contract extension for Rob Refsnyder early Saturday and then came from behind to top the Tampa Bay Rays 8-5 in the first game of a doubleheader, only to lose the second game with closer Kenley Jansen giving up the winning runs in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss.
Advertisement
One step forward, one step back has been a theme for much of the season for the Red Sox, who sit 10 games back of the Rays and now own a 30-28 record.
Game 1 offered some solace for the Red Sox, who had been swept in a four-game series in Tampa in April.
Alex Verdugo led off the first game with a single, but the Red Sox didn’t register another hit until the fifth inning with a leadoff double from Reese McGuire. McGuire’s double sparked a rally and Verdugo pushed across a run, but the momentum was extinguished quickly and Jarren Duran struck out with the bases loaded to end the threat. Yet the next inning, the Red Sox did it all over again, this time scoring six runs with a familiar unrelenting attack to take the lead. Justin Turner’s bases-clearing double off the wall served as the definitive blow, giving the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. Masataka Yoshida added another double to make it 6-4 and Duran added a run-scoring single to make it 7-4. A Verdugo RBI double drove in another run in the seventh.
The Red Sox offense has appeared inconsistent of late, but a look at the numbers over the first two months shows how steadily the lineup has produced. In March/April, the Red Sox hit .257 with .769 OPS and in May they hit .272 with a .766 OPS.
“If you see the numbers we put up in April and the numbers in May, it’s the same,” manager Alex Cora said after winning the first game. “Fourth-best offense in the big leagues. We’re going to go through stretches where we don’t hit the ball out of the ballpark or the kids are going to struggle because it’s the beauty of 162.”
The beauty of 162 games turned the feel-good atmosphere of the first game into frustration during the second.
Despite scoring eight runs in each of their first two games in June, the Red Sox offense couldn’t put enough together in the second game of the day.
On a cold, drizzly night, Rays starter Tyler Glasnow held the Red Sox to one run over 5 1/3 innings despite issuing three walks. Yoshida, who had three hits across the two games, doubled off Glasnow in the fourth and scored on a Triston Casas triple. In the seventh, reliever Colin Poche issued a one-out walk to Connor Wong, Verdugo struck out and Rafael Devers appeared to pop out. But Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe dropped the ball in a stroke of good fortune for the Red Sox. Wong, running hard from first with two outs, scored easily to tie the game 2-2, and that momentum appeared as if it might carry the Red Sox to a doubleheader sweep.
Advertisement
But the Sox wasted a chance in the eighth, leaving two on when Casas drew a two-out walk and Pablo Reyes singled. Kiké Hernández struck out to end it.
The Rays struck the next half inning with Jansen pitching for the second time that day. Tampa Bay put runners on with back-to-back singles. Jansen got a flyout but then surrendered a two-run double to Harold Ramirez.
Jansen told Cora before the second game that he’d be available for both games and while Jansen closed out the first game on 16 pitches, he wasn’t able to shut down the Rays in the second game.
“Honestly, I felt great,” Jansen said after the second game. “Of course, the results are not what anybody wants.
“It’s a tough team we played and of course, it doesn’t feel great,” he added. “But you just got to be accountable for it and keep your chest up and move forward and keep working hard to get better.”
The bullpen was already thin with the doubleheader, but Cora said after the game they were also without Joely Rodríguez who had started to warm up in the late innings of the second game and felt pain in his biceps.
Kutter Crawford came out of the bullpen to start Game 2 and pitched three innings, allowing one run on two hits. Cora didn’t want to push him beyond that since he hadn’t been stretched more than three innings since coming off the injury list and had thrown 24 pitches on Wednesday. It was a patchwork game that nearly worked, with Justin Garza recording four outs, Ryan Sherriff getting five outs while allowing one run and Brennan Bernardino tossing two scoreless innings before Jansen gave up the winning runs.
“You map it out, obviously, and the game is the game,” Cora said. “Kenley was available. We talked to him before the game and he said he was good. So we knew we had that one. And then Sheriff and Bernardino, they did an amazing job. Garza too. It is what it is. Kutter did a great job and we had a chance in the ninth inning.”
Advertisement
Cora said even with Jasen telling him he was available, he didn’t consider holding out the veteran closer, despite the drizzly 45-degree weather.
“The other guys were down, so it’s one of those, you do the math,” he said. “We have a handful of pitchers. We almost pulled it out.”
Nick Pivetta, who had pitched Wednesday (13 pitches) and Thursday (15 pitches), was being held for extra innings.
In the first game, Garrett Whitlock pitched just 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits. Sherriff got him out of a jam in the fifth, and Corey Kluber, pitching for the first time out of the bullpen, recorded a clean top of the sixth inning. From there, Josh Winckowski, Chris Martin and Jansen kept the Rays at bay.
But the Red Sox couldn’t hold down the best team in baseball twice in one day.
(Top photo of Kenley Jansen talking to Connor Wong: Nick Grace / Getty Images)