Red Sox drop fourth straight to Tampa Bay
BOSTON -- As bleak as things have been for the Red Sox lately, they opened Thursday with what they thought could be a feel-good story.
Left-hander Kyle Hart -- a 19th-round pick from the 2016 Draft who came back from Tommy John surgery and rose through the farm system -- was making his Major League debut.
By the third inning, Hart had become the latest pitcher to take an early-game pounding on a day his team appeared to hit rock bottom -- or at least they hoped that’s what this was.
Thanks to a combination of defensive gaffes (including three throwing errors by Rafael Devers) and subpar pitching, the Sox were smashed, 17-8, by the Rays at Fenway Park.
Things were in such disarray by the top of the ninth inning that manager Ron Roenicke had to go to position player José Peraza to pitch. So imagine the sinking feeling Roenicke had when Brandon Lowe stung a liner off the side of Peraza’s right knee, forcing him out of the game. He then went to catcher Kevin Plawecki to finish pitching the ninth, as infielder/outfielder Tzu-Wei Lin went behind the plate.
Rock bottom? Absolutely.
“I think once Peraza got smoked in the knee, that’s about as bad as it gets,” said Roenicke. “You’re trying to get through a game and he gets smoked. He’s OK, we X-rayed it and actually he got hit in a good spot on the knee, but I still feel bad about it. But yes, just sloppy.”
• Notes: Benintendi 'frustrated', Bogaerts rests
The Red Sox are 6-13 as they brace for overpowering Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in the opener of a four-game series in the Bronx on Friday night. Maybe going on the road isn’t such a bad thing, since Boston is 3-9 at home this season.
Is there a message Roenicke needs to give to his team, on Zoom or otherwise?
“I really don’t need to make a message after that. They know,” Roenicke said. “When you see heads hanging after a game, they realize that we’ll have an advance meeting tomorrow and I’ll probably say some things to them, but it’s just the way it’s going, just going through a bad point.
“We keep talking about how we need to turn it around and we’re not doing that. Guys just need to relax and play how they’re capable. There are some good players on this team and I still have a lot of confidence in them. So I still think it’s going to show up, but it’s hard watching games like that.”
It was the culmination of a four-game sweep in which Tampa Bay outscored Boston by 20 runs (42-22), scoring eight runs or more in each contest.
It’s not just that the Red Sox were so thoroughly beaten by a Rays squad that has won 13 of 14 at Fenway and eight in a row dating back to last season.
What had to hurt most for Roenicke’s team was the way it happened. Throughout the series, there were lapses on defense. In a couple of the games, there were baserunning blunders.
“I still think we’re a good defensive team, just like I think we’re going to hit better and we haven’t done it yet,” said Roenicke. “There was a stretch there where I thought we played really well defensively, but this wasn’t a very good series. Some guys I think are pretty steady defenders, so hopefully we’ll get rid of this game and move on and try to have a good series against the Yankees.”
In Thursday’s finale, Devers made two throwing errors in the same inning. The first one in the top of the fourth was on a tailor-made double-play grounder, but Devers threw the ball into right field.
“He really takes those errors hard and he doesn’t want to let the team down. And as hard as he works at it, he wants to be perfect at what he does,” Roenicke said. “When these things happen, you can see it in the body language. But I know he’s going to continue to work, he’s going to continue to get better, and we’ll get him in a streak where he’s going to play really good defense like he did for a long time last year.”
With Hart (five earned runs on seven hits and three walks in two-plus innings) trying to settle down in the first, second baseman Jonathan Arauz booted a routine grounder that led to a pair of unearned runs.
“I know Kyle Hart, he didn’t locate the ball like he wants to and he’s going to rely on locating, but we didn’t help him at all defensively and that’s what I feel bad about,” Roenicke said. “He’s out there for his first time pitching in the big leagues and he needs to get all the outs he can get, and we didn’t help him.”
Roenicke was noncommittal when asked if Hart would stay in the rotation. The 27-year-old made no excuses for his performance.
“Obviously the results, not even close to what I had envisioned, but it’s something that I’m happy I went through it,” Hart said. “I’m happy that I can put it beyond me and start working and growing and just keep maturing as a pitcher, because I know I can compete at this level, although today wasn’t my best display.”
Nearly one-third of the way through the 60-game season, the Red Sox need to find some answers fast if they are going to be competitive.
“It's obviously tough,” said Plawecki. “There's no other way to put it. We just got beat, four days in a row. It's not fun. I can tell you that. It's tough. But we're fighting, obviously going through a tough stretch. That's obvious. Just got to keep working, keep playing hard, and hopefully we have some better results coming up.”