Brutal seventh buries Red Sox in uninspired 8-2 loss to Rays

Another night, another uninspired effort from the Red Sox.

A night after a sloppy, long loss to the Rays that was there for the taking, the Red Sox came back Tuesday night and watched their visiting division rivals run all over them again. The Red Sox wasted a solid effort from Martin Perez, again couldn’t find a spark offensively and a brutal seventh inning from the bullpen sealed their fate in an 8-2 loss at Fenway Park.

With a 6-11 record, two more games against the Rays this week and a four-game series with the Yankees coming after, the Red Sox need to turn up the urgency they’ve been lacking or quickly watch their season fade away.

Here were three takeaways from Tuesday:

Seventh inning buries Red Sox: The Red Sox trailed 2-1 going into the seventh when everything went wrong. Austin Brice, who had been solid in relief this season, was not sharp and the Rays took full advantage.

Manuel Margot’s one-out RBI double to left was the first sign of trouble, but a walk to No. 9 hitter Mike Zunino opened the floodgates. Brice somehow stayed in the game, as he unsurprisingly served up an RBI double to Brandon Lowe. It was 5-1 before Ron Roenicke summoned Robert Stock for his Red Sox debut, and he couldn’t do much better. A passed ball and a two-run double later, it was an 8-1 game and pretty much over.

Neither Brice or Stock got much help from their defense, either. Michael Chavis puzzlingly tried going home instead of first on a deep grounder, and Andrew Benintendi took a bad route in left on Hunter Renfroe’s two-run double.

Perez looks good again: One of the few bright spots on the night was Perez, who turned in another strong outing. The lefty went 5⅔ innings, giving up two runs on three hits and striking out five.

Perez gave up a leadoff home run in the first to Mike Brosseau, who also smoked him for a double, but the veteran lefty never panicked. He was efficient later in his outing, retiring six consecutive batters between the fourth and fifth on 22 pitches, before striking out Yandy Diaz and Austin Meadows to start the sixth. But he’ll certainly be frustrated by his two-out walk to Jose Martinez, which ended his night an out short of a quality start.

Still, Perez has looked good over his last three outings, with a 2.20 ERA over 16⅓ innings and 14 strikeouts.

Benintendi finally breaks through at the plate — kind of: It was last Friday, as Benintendi continued what’s been a season-long slump at the plate, that Ron Roenicke was hoping that the left fielder could just get a bounce or two, a weird play, that might help him get going at the plate.

“You don’t know what it’s going to take,” Roenicke said. “It may take an inside-the-park home run. It may take a bunt hit. … Or it may take a walk or two. You don’t know what’s going to click.”

It took a few more days, but perhaps Benintendi can build off what he did Tuesday.

After a putrid 2-for-36 start to the season, Benintendi returned to the leadoff spot Tuesday and collected as many hits as he’s produced in his first 13 games. He went 2-for-3, both of which were soft singles. He led off the game with a grounder that slid deep into the shift at second, and was safe on inaccurate throw. The next at-bat he chopped a ball down the first-base line that stayed fair just enough.

Despite the offensive breakthrough, though, you still have to wonder where Benintendi’s head is at after that misplay in left on Renfroe’s seventh-inning double, and a baserunning blunder in the eighth, where he inexplicably tried going first to third on an RBI single from Verdugo, fell down and was eventually tagged out.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3kyX2Rz