Sickening series
Sox waste Sale start, drop 3-of-4
Throughout the wraparound weekend series against the Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox were beset by injuries, illnesses and absences.
Despite the obstacles, Chris Sale and the Sox were in position to salvage a series split, but the Tigers scratched out a late run yesterday to win, 2-1, at Comerica Park and take three games in the four-game series.
The loss sent the Sox back to Fenway Park with a 3-3 record and the hope that home is where the health is.
“It was obviously different,” Brock Holt said of the series. “Got a lot of guys that are down for a day here or a day there, and then they come back and other guys get sick and stuff like that. It was a different series. We just tried to grind it out.”
Sale pitched masterfully in his second outing with the Sox, just as he had in the first. He allowed just one hit through five innings and one run through seven. He struck out 10 and issued just one walk in 72⁄ innings. The left-hander was efficient, too, as he needed just 88 pitches to get through the first seven frames.
In the eighth inning, Sale retired the first two batters before the Tigers produced the go-ahead run.
Andrew Romine doubled on a sharply hit ball off the glove of Holt at third base to start the rally. Ian Kinsler, who had hit a tying home run in the sixth, drew the only walk issued by Sale to put two on with two outs.
Red Sox manager Farrell thought working around Kinsler to get to Nicholas Castellanos was the right move and was impressed that Sale took that route. Sale, however, denied that pitching around Kinsler was part of the plan.
“I don’t work around anybody,” Sale said. “Just trying to get outs, no matter who it is, what team you’re facing or where you’re at. Trying to get outs, and I wasn’t able to do that at the end.”
Sale got Castellanos to hit the ball on the ground, but it found a hole in the left side of the infield and went into left field for a single that allowed Romine to score the winning run.
Farrell didn’t regret leaving Sale in during the fateful eighth inning.
“I thought he was still strong and still had quality stuff,” Farrell said. “He pitched around Kinsler with the base open, which I thought he was managing the situation, and he had handled Castellanos the three previous at-bats (popout, two strikeouts); he hits one through the hole. “(Sale) pitched a hell of a game.” Tigers starter Justin Verlander pitched pretty well, too, and the Red Sox had few opportunities to score against the former American League Cy Young Award and AL MVP winner. In the second inning, the Sox loaded the bases with no outs on a double, a walk and an error, but the visitors managed just one unearned run when Holt grounded into a double play.
Verlander allowed just three hits in seven innings. Two of those hits were doubles by Mitch Moreland, who added a ninth-inning single against closer Francisco Rodriguez.
“Anytime you face a lineup like this and a guy pitching like him, it’s going to be a tough road,” Sale said. “You know what you’re in for. I just needed to bear down a little better, and I wasn’t able to corral it at the end. That sucked.”
The same could be said of the team’s health situation, but brighter days lie ahead. The Red Sox expect to have Xander Bogaerts (bereavement leave) and Hanley Ramirez (flu) in the lineup tonight for the opener of a two-game set with the Baltimore Orioles.
“Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end,” Holt said. “We’re looking forward to getting home and getting most of our guys back.”