Red Sox lose no-hit bid, AL East lead late

The Red Sox lost a no-hitter in the eighth inning, then lost the game and first place in the American League East in bizarre fashion in the bottom of the ninth on Thursday night at Tropicana Field.

When Francisco Mejía swung and missed at a curveball by Matt Barnes, the ball bounced away from Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez and Manuel Margot came racing home to score with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off 1-0 win for Tampa Bay.

“Yeah, I was trying to keep it in front of me, but it bounced hard off my chest, and it was a tough one,” said Vázquez.

The final play was ruled a wild pitch, and it certainly provided a wild ending to a thrilling game between two teams who could battle all summer and into the fall for the division title.

So it didn’t seem unreasonable when the first question to Red Sox manager Alex Cora in his post-game Zoom conference was if this was the toughest loss of the season for his 44-31 team.

“It all depends how you see it,” said Cora. “I thought it was a great baseball game. We ended up losing 1-0. We did a lot of good things, we did a lot of bad things. At the end, they get a good lead at third, the ball gets away from Christian, they win the game."

Though the Rays (45-31) took the rubber match of the three-game set to pull back in front in the division by a half-game, Cora was impressed with the way his team stacked up.

“I've got to be honest with you -- a lot of people, they didn't believe in this team before the season,” said Cora. “I think the way we played against these guys tonight shows how good we are. We have a lot of work to do. We know that. But we belong in the conversation. We're really good. It's going to be a fun summer in Boston.”

Thursday was clearly a fun night to watch Nick Pivetta pitch. The 28-year-old righty was lifted with a no-hitter in progress through 6 2/3 innings. He was at 100 pitches in a scoreless game.

Cora brought on lefty Josh Taylor, who extended his streak of scoreless outings to 22.

Tough decision?

“It wasn't tough,” said Cora. “It's a 0-0 game, we have one of the best lefties in the game, probably the best lefty throwing the ball in the game. It was a no-brainer.”

That didn’t make it any easier for the ultra-competitive Pivetta.

“I did not want to come out, but it’s not about me, it’s about the game,” Pivetta said. “It’s about winning baseball games. That’s what’s most important.”

Would Cora have handled it differently if the Red Sox had a lead?

“We didn't have the lead there, so I had to make the decision,” Cora said. “I don't know how I would've reacted if we had the lead.”

The Red Sox came agonizingly close to getting that lead in the top of the seventh, when Vázquez laced a single up the middle and Hunter Renfroe tried to score from second. But Kevin Kiermaier unleashed a 94.7-mph throw to the plate, and Renfroe was out at the plate on a close play. Cora challenged the call, but to no avail.

Kiermaier haunted the Red Sox again with one out in the eighth when he smashed a double to left against lefty Darwinzon Hernandez, costing Boston a chance at the 19th no-hitter in club history.

It would have been the second combined no-no for the club, and the first since June 23, 1917, when Babe Ruth walked the first batter of the game, then got ejected for punching the umpire and Ernie Shore went the rest of the way without giving up a hit.

Though the end result wasn’t what the Red Sox were looking for, that did nothing to diminish the performance by Pivetta, who was marvelous.

Pivetta walked two and struck out eight. In particular, his curveball was nasty, and he generated six of his 14 whiffs with that pitch.

Not only was Pivetta in complete control, but he was fired up. That was never more true than when Renfroe raced back to the wall and made a snow cone catch to rob Ji-Man Choi of extra bases for the second out in the sixth inning.

That was when it started to feel like something special could happen for Pivetta.

The way Pivetta reacted to the play, you would have thought it was October and not June.

“I have the utmost confidence in him making that play. I thought the ball might’ve gone out, but I’ve never pitched here before, so I wasn't really sure,” said Pivetta. “I was just really excited. It’s exciting baseball. It’s divisional [play]. No matter what, it's just fun, and the fans were into it and it’s exciting.”

And as Cora said even after a tough loss, the excitement might just be getting started for the Red Sox, who will entertain the Yankees for a three-game series that starts on Friday night.