The Red Sox have now been swept for the second time this season and the second time this month, losing in extra innings on the road again because they’re completely incapable of winning tied games on the road. They’ve now lost 5 in a row, fallen to 4 games below .500, and have, according to FanGraphs at the time of writing this, am 18.5% chance to make the postseason. The offense may have scored more runs today and hit homers, but the RISP failures flared up again and the bullpen still couldn’t keep any Sox lead. It’s quite a tough scene right now.
Three Studs:
Ceddane Rafaela: Hit his third homer of the season in the top of the 2nd and went 3-5 at the plate today with the home run and two hits. He also made a great catch in the outfield in the bottom of the second.
Rafael Devers: Drove in two runs with an RBI single in the top of the 4th and didn’t strike out once.
Wilyer Abreu: Smacked a solo homer to right field in the top of the 7th to tie the game back up after we were losing 4-3, and gave us a chance (of course a slim one) to fight back.
Three Duds:
Pretty Much Everyone Else On The Whole Team: Three errors from the defense is ugly. Mayer and Hamilton going 0-4 and 0-5 is ugly. Leaving the bases loaded twice in the game is ugly. Being an inconsistent bullpen is ugly. Giving up 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th after the Red Sox had managed to score one is ugly. Ugliness all around. What else can you call it?
Kristian Campbell (Special Mention): His bad throw to the plate in the 10th brought in the tying run for the Brewers, and they proceeded to walk it off shortly afterward on a sac-fly.
Jarren Duran (Special Mention): He didn’t do the worst offensively today and went 2-5, but he missed a fly-out in bottom of the 5th that ended up turning into a run for the Brewers later in the inning. Not good!
Play of the Game: Ceddanne’s Home Run
Yeah, the catch was fantastic, but we almost expect that from Rafaela given how good we know his defense is. We are less likely to expect homers from him, so this was a nice thing in an otherwise not-nice game. It’d be great if the homer was a sign of him improving behind the plate, when the team badly needs offensive production and we, as fans, would love to see him be a better all-around player.
You know what isn’t ugly? Having an off-day tomorrow! Everyone gets a much-needed break, including the fans. Will the rest day right the ship, or start to? Or will everything stay bad and/or get worse? Time will tell!
