The Red Sox had a plan all mapped out, but there wasn’t much room for error.
Brayan Bello would pitch most, if not all, of the suspended game on Wednesday afternoon, with Aroldis Chapman available to close things out if necessary. Then, with the bullpen fully rested and an off-day coming Thursday, the rest of the staff would piece together the nightcap. Everyone had a job to do, but if anyone dropped the baton things could get ugly in a hurry.
Boston nearly made it to the finish, but the bullpen couldn’t get the series sweep over the line.
After winning Wednesday afternoon’s rain-suspended game, the Red Sox stumbled in the evening’s finale, losing to the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 after allowing eight runs from the seventh inning onwards. Greg Weissert allowed five runs in the top of the seventh, including a go-ahead grand slam by Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and the offense went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
The Red Sox also recorded two outs on the base paths and shot themselves in the foot repeatedly with poor decision-making on defense, especially in the eighth inning.
“A three-run lead in the seventh we expect to win those games,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “If you look back at the season there’s a lot of those that have slipped through our hands, and honestly we’re in the position we are because of that.”
“We felt like that one slipped away a little bit,” shortstop Trevor Story said.
Even with Wednesday night’s result, the Reds will probably be happy to be rid of Wilyer Abreu for a while once they get home to Cincinnati.
After hitting an inside-the-park homer and a grand slam on Monday and the game-winning RBI single earlier Wednesday, Abreu came through again with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth. Abreu has now hit four home runs in his last five games and is up to 17 homers on the season.
Before things got out of hand, Wednesday was shaping up to be a massive win for the Red Sox.
Brennan Bernardino got the ball first, becoming the first opener Boston has used so far this season, and he, Jorge Alcala and Chris Murphy combined for 5.2 scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox broke the ice offensively with a Romy Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second. Ceddanne Rafaela led off the inning with a double deep off the Green Monster in center field, took third when the center fielder bobbled the ball and scored when Gonzalez drove the ball into right field.
Abreu’s home run came with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and put the Red Sox up 3-0. It also came after Story (3 for 4, double) kept the inning alive with a two-out single.
Though the Reds had a couple of men reach second earlier in the game, their first real scoring opportunity didn’t come until the top of the seventh when Weissert allowed a leadoff single, a runner to reach on an error at third, and a walk to load the bases with nobody out.
Encarnacion-Strand made sure he paid.
The Reds first baseman, who wasn’t even in Cincinnati’s starting lineup until shortly before first pitch after Spencer Steer was scratched with a right hand contusion, uncorked a mammoth grand slam over the Green Monster to put his team ahead. The Reds tacked on a fifth run on an Elly de la Cruz RBI single to go up 5-3, at which point Alex Cora had no choice but to pull Weissert.
The Red Sox got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Marcelo Mayer hit a leadoff ground rule double and Gonzalez followed with an RBI double, but the Red Sox first baseman got greedy and was thrown out at third trying to leg out a triple. That proved consequential when Jarren Duran later hit a single that otherwise would have tied the game.
“That’s too aggressive,” Cora said of Gonzalez’s decision to try and take third.
Reds starter Nick Martinez finished his day with four runs allowed over 6.2 innings with nine hits, no walks and two strikeouts.
Boston came completely unglued in the eighth when a string of defensive gaffes resulted in three more runs coming in. The sequence included a play where Roman Anthony failed to call off Marcelo Mayer on a fly ball in shallow right and proceeded to throw away what would have at least been an easy forceout at second.
“Just bad communication on my end, I’m the outfielder coming in, he’s coming back, and the ball kind of stayed up so I’ve got to make that play and make that throw at the very least,” Anthony said. “The one’s on me, I’ve just got to call him off as the right fielder knowing that’s my priority.”
Then the big lowlight came when Story misplayed a grounder by TJ Friedl that Mayer then threw to third instead of home. Abraham Toro then tried to get the runner at the plate much too late, and the runner at second wound up reaching third safely as well.
Now while the Red Sox (43-45) will head to Washington with a series win in hand, they’ve once again squandered the momentum they’d built up over the past few days.
Though Story said he has no answers for why nights like Wednesday keep happening, he still believes the club is on the right track.
“We definitely feel like we’re close. If you win a series that’s a positive, and that’s the way we’re going to look at it,” Story said. “Obviously this one stings a little bit because we felt like we could have completed the sweep and we had a lead, but we keep winning series we’ll be where we want to be at the end.”
Wilson banged up
Red Sox left-hander Justin Wilson hasn’t pitched since last Tuesday in Anaheim and did not appear in either of Wednesday’s games during the doubleheader. Cora said afterwards that Wilson has been battling an injury and Wilson confirmed in the clubhouse postgame that he’s been dealing with left forearm inflammation.
“A little bit banged up but today there were a bunch of righties there so we didn’t need him,” Cora said.
Wilson is expected to be available on Friday when the Red Sox open their three-game series against the Washington Nationals.
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