Rays lament costly lapse on double steal in 8th

ST. PETERSBURG -- With runners on the corners and two outs in the eighth inning Tuesday night, Red Sox star Rafael Devers took off for second base. Behind the plate, Ben Rortvedt knew what he needed to do.

Rortvedt snagged an outside breaking ball from setup man Jason Adam, stood up and fired the ball to second base. The throw was high, forcing Brandon Lowe to leave his feet and leap off the bag. As Devers stutter-stepped and slipped behind Lowe, the second baseman quickly bounced a throw back to Rortvedt.

But the Rays had little chance of catching the speedy Jarren Duran at that point. Duran took off as soon as he saw Rortvedt throw the ball to second and slid home safely, giving the Red Sox a two-run lead. It was a significant play in the decisive inning of the Rays’ frustrating, 5-2 loss to the Red Sox, which clinched Boston’s first series victory at Tropicana Field since July 2019.

Rortvedt lamented the throw, saying he should have put it on the bag. Manager Kevin Cash credited Boston for making a “nice baseball play.” And Lowe took the blame upon himself for not simply turning around to tag Devers for the final out of the inning.

“That's exactly what those plays are drawn up to do,” Lowe said. “It sucks, but learn from it, make sure it doesn't happen again.”

The Rays’ season-high-tying third straight defeat did not come down to that play, but it was another missed opportunity in the field for a usually stellar defensive club that entered the day ranked 19th in the Majors in Outs Above Average and 23rd in Defensive Runs Saved.

And with Tampa Bay having scored only four runs on 14-for-91 (.154) hitting over the past three days, every mistake is magnified.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the play was designed to “push the envelope” in that situation, but they didn’t actually want Devers to stop the way he did. Cash said they would have “ideally” tagged him but acknowledged it was “a big ask” given how the play unfolded.

Lowe said he saw Devers stop out of the corner of his eye but figured he would backpedal, trying to get into a rundown so Duran had time to score.

“Looking back on the play, my fault,” Lowe said. “I'm probably not going to throw him out, but I have a chance to run Devers down before [Duran] gets to the plate. And looking back on the video, it's obvious I should have done that from the beginning.

“It just sucks that it happened. It sucks that it's an earned run on Jason. I wish I could have an ERA to take that away from him.”

The Red Sox had already taken a lead by then, however. Having allowed just one earned run in 18 appearances since April 6, Adam allowed a leadoff single to Ceddanne Rafaela then walked Duran on a full-count changeup. Wilyer Abreu slapped a single to center, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead, then stepped off the bag after stealing second.

“Felt like the stuff was coming out of my hand fine,” Adam said. “Just wasn't executing pitches, especially early put-away pitches.”

Adam struck out Tyler O’Neill, then the Rays intentionally walked Devers to bring up Romy Gonzalez. The call was clear from Tampa Bay’s dugout, Cash said: If Devers runs, throw him out.

“Duran's fast. He's a good basestealer, but we feel like Devers stealing second is someone that I'm able to throw out,” Rortvedt said. “Got to make a better throw there.”

Erasmo Ramírez gave up a solo shot to Reese McGuire in the ninth to put the game out of reach for a lineup that went silent after making a lot of loud contact in the first inning against former Ray Cooper Criswell.

Josh Lowe ripped a 101.3 mph leadoff single and moved to third on Randy Arozarena’s 100.9 mph double to left field. With the infield in, Brandon Lowe smashed a 109.1 mph groundout to shortstop David Hamilton. But Isaac Paredes delivered, lining a two-run single that tipped off Devers’ glove at 104.2 mph.

But Criswell shut down the Rays after that, allowing just two singles and a walk before exiting with one out in the sixth inning. And the Red Sox climbed back into the game despite another solid outing by starter Zack Littell, setting up a battle of the bullpens -- and baserunning -- that went Boston’s way.

“'Lit' did everything that we could ask him to do. Criswell, we had kind of on the ropes there in the first, and then he settled in, got really efficient with the strike-throwing,” Cash said. “We couldn't get much going from the rest of the game.”