ST. PETERSBURG -- There were no catwalks to be found for the Red Sox in Thursday's Game 1 of the American League Division Series. But there sure were a lot of hard-hit balls by Boston that went … right at those well-positioned Rays defenders.

It helped add up to a 5-0 defeat that will send manager Alex Cora's team into Game 2 with a sense of urgency to salvage a split on Friday before this best-of-five set goes back to Fenway Park on Sunday.

In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams who lost Game 1 on the road have advanced 10 of 43 times (23%). This excludes 2020, when the Division Series were played at neutral sites.

"We're good," said Cora. "I loved the at-bats today. ... We put some pressure on them. They made some plays. We hit some balls hard, but we've got Chris [Sale], and he is ready to go. The bullpen is rested, so we should be OK."

• Pivetta's length keeps Sox fresh for Game 2

While the night didn't get off to an ideal start from a pitching standpoint (Eduardo Rodriguez recorded just five outs before getting the hook), Boston's bats gave the club plenty of chances to climb back into the game.

Of late, the Red Sox's talented offense has been hit or miss. After banging the baseball around for seven runs in that crucial Game No. 162 win at Washington on Sunday afternoon and six more in the AL Wild Card Game against the Yankees on Tuesday night, Boston was kept off the board in Game 1.

The bottom-line results, however, didn't necessarily match up with the amount of hard contact. The Red Sox hit into five outs on balls that had an exit velocity of 100 mph or more -- all in the first six innings.

Some of that is to the credit of the Rays, who combine strong analytics to formulate their positioning in addition to having players who are plus defenders.

"Look, they hit the ball hard early on off [starter] Shane [McClanahan]," said Rays manager Kevin Cash. "Shane was awesome, but you know coming in against the Red Sox, they are such a good lineup. They aren't a bunch of guys that you can just go carve through. They put pressure on us, but our defense was good as well."

If zero runs and nine hits seemed like an unusual combination, it's because it was. Consider that this was the first time that has happened to the Red Sox in their extensive postseason history and just the 11th instance in any playoff game.

And it was just the second time in 20 years it has happened to Boston in any game. The only other time it happened in the past two decades was April 6, 2014, against the Brewers.

"Yeah, we had traffic out there, and we just didn't cash in," said Cora. "Bobby [Dalbec] hit a few missiles with men on. Obviously, in the eighth we load the bases; we didn't score."

Making the bases-loaded opportunity in the eighth even more painful is that Rafael Devers, the most dangerous hitter on the team and one of the most feared in the game, was up with one out and struck out on a fastball well above the strike zone.

Devers (1-for-4) played the game with a wrap around his right arm and he dropped his bat to the ground after a couple of mighty cuts. However, Cora downplayed any significant health issue with his third baseman.

"A few days ago, everybody said he was setting up the pitcher whenever he drops the bat," Cora said. "Today, because he didn't get a hit, he is hurt. I mean, after 162 games, things happen and you get treatment, and you grind, you know? Not everybody is 100 percent right now, and he is posting."

Devers will be back in the lineup for Game 2, and he could have J.D. Martinez there with him. Martinez was inactive for the AL Wild Card Game and was out of the lineup on Thursday due to a sprained left ankle, but the hope is he will be ready for Friday.

To get a split in the series, the Red Sox will not only need a strong pitching performance from Sale, but they'll need some good fortune on offense.

That clearly was not the case on Thursday. The Sox went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base.

"Obviously, situations like this, you have to score runners," said second baseman Christian Arroyo. "As an offense, I thought we did a good job of getting our knocks, but you've got to have that [big] blow, you know?"

The Rays had their share of those, including a solo shot in the third inning by ageless slugger Nelson Cruz that hit the C-ring catwalk and caused some brief confusion for Boston's defense.

"It threw me off because I thought [Alex Verdugo] was camped under it, and then I saw the ball bounce, and then I saw Nelson Cruz jogging, so I was really confused," said Arroyo, a former Ray. "It's part of the game, and it's part of the ground rules here. There's really nothing you can do about it."

What the Red Sox will try to do is get back to the best version of themselves offensively in Game 2.

"There were some good at-bats in the middle of the game, grind at-bats," Cora said. "Others were kind of empty, but I think overall we did a good job hitting line drives and staying in the middle of the field."