Tuesday night was the Red Sox’s first half in a nutshell.
Garrett Crochet delivered a gem, throwing seven scoreless innings while striking out 10, and Marcelo Mayer appeared to cap off a brilliant showing in his Southern California backyard by driving in what looked like the game-winning run in the top of the 10th.
And yet the Red Sox let too many opportunities pass them by, forcing the club to walk a narrow tightrope it couldn’t successfully navigate.
The end result? Yet another one-run loss. Yet another extra-innings loss. Yet another gut punch.
Christian Moore hit two home runs late, first tying the game with a solo shot off Greg Weissert in the eighth before delivering a walk-off two-run shot in the 10th off Justin Wilson to give the Los Angeles Angels a stunning 3-2 win.
The Red Sox have now lost four straight and officially reach the season’s midway point under .500 at 40-41.
Boston led 1-0 into the eighth inning before things went sideways, but the club didn’t help itself by going 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. The Red Sox have also now played an MLB-most 14 extra innings games, going 5-9 in those games and 0-6 on the road.
The Red Sox are also now 9-19 in one-run games.
“Two pitches, two swings, they win the game,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters postgame. “We pitched the ball extremely well, played good defense, offensively we need to do a little bit more but that’s baseball.”
Offense was hard to come by for the Red Sox against Angels starter Tyler Anderson, who limited Boston to just two hits over his 4.2 innings. But one of those was Mayer’s first career triple, which he roped down the right field line to lead off the top of the third.
The rookie immediately came in to score on Nate Eaton’s subsequent sacrifice fly, and while the throw to the plate was a good one, Mayer was able to avoid the tag with a great slide to sneak his hand in for the run.
Eaton came up big again in the bottom of the fourth defensively as well.
With two outs in the inning Taylor Ward hit a double and Logan O’Hoppe singled, which appeared for a moment to give the Angels a golden scoring opportunity with two men in scoring position. But the Angels never even got a chance to bat, because when Ward took too wide a turn at third base on the single, Eaton received the ball near the bag and was able to run down the Angels outfielder and make a diving tag to end the inning.
Crochet pretty much cruised from there.
The Red Sox ace delivered exactly the kind of performance the club needed, shutting out the Angels over seven dominant innings. The left-hander struck out 10 batters, marking his fourth outing with double-digit punch outs, and limited the Angels to three hits and three walks.
“This is why we traded for him, this is why we extended him and every five days we feel very comfortable with him on the mound,” Cora said of Crochet.
Other than the fourth, the only other time Los Angeles got a chance against Crochet came in the seventh. Mike Trout drew a leadoff walk and Jo Adell later singled with two outs to put two men on, but Crochet was able to finish his outing by forcing pinch hitter Travis d’Arnaud to pop out, preserving the 1-0 Red Sox lead.
It wouldn’t last.
Weissert, who entered Tuesday leading all American League pitchers in appearances, allowed a game-tying solo home run by Moore with one out in the bottom of the eighth. The top Angels prospect came into the day batting .156 with one home run, but Moore got ahold of a fastball over the middle and sent it 387 into the left field stands.
As a result, Tuesday became the fifth time this season Crochet has posted a quality start without earning a win.
The Red Sox squandered an opportunity to re-take the lead in the top of the ninth. Romy Gonzalez reached on a leadoff error and advanced to second when Jarren Duran drew a walk, but former Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen was able to keep things from snowballing, forcing Trevor Story and Ceddanne Rafaela to fly out to end the inning.
Aroldis Chapman struck out three in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extras, and once there Mayer immediately put Boston back in front with his go-ahead RBI single to score the ghost runner Rafaela. Mayer finished 3 for 4 with a triple, RBI and a run scored, marking his first career three-hit game.
Yet the bullpen once again faltered, and this time it was the left-hander Wilson who gave up the walk-off two-run shot to Moore to end the game.
Fitts starting finale
Following the game the Red Sox announce right-hander Richard Fitts (0-3, 4.71) will get the start for Wednesday’s finale. He’s expected to face off against Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (2-6, 3.01).
Houck endures rocky rehab outing
Tanner Houck’s second rehab start with the WooSox did not go well, with the right-hander allowing four earned runs over 1.2 innings in Worcester’s eventual 6-5 loss to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Houck allowed three hits and two walks, struck out two and was pulled with two outs in the second after throwing 49 pitches, 26 for strikes.
Houck’s first inning went smoothly, sending the opposing batters down 1-2-3 with a strikeout, a groundout and a flyout, but things went sideways in the second. The righty allowed a single and a hit batsman to start the inning, and after getting a strikeout proceeded to allow the next four men to reach safely. He drew a run-scoring groundout to end his day, leaving with Worcester trailing 4-1.
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