Porcello folds to Rays
Rick Porcello seemed to have figured things out since his last start against the Tampa Bay Rays a month ago. But the Red Sox right-hander left Fenway Park last night probably feeling some deja vu.
Four weeks after a disastrous start against Tampa Bay, Porcello was shelled again against his new division nemesis, even though this time he wasn’t alone in his undoing, as the Red Sox unraveled defensively and came up a hit short in their 5-4 loss to the Rays, in the opener of a threegame set.
Porcello was better in his rematch against the Rays — a month after getting rocked for eight runs in a 10-5 loss — but last night offered less room for error. This time he was hurt by a pair of errors in the fourth and then fell back into some bad habits in the fifth that dug the Red Sox a 5-0 hole they couldn’t escape.
“Just two innings where I didn’t make pitches with runners on base and ended up getting hurt by them,” Porcello said.
The offense did its best to make up for it, even after mustering just one hit over the first six innings. A seventh-inning, four-run rally made things interesting, but they couldn’t get one more key hit. The Sox had Xander Bogaerts on third with one out in the eighth, but they couldn’t cash him in, and they couldn’t get anything going in the ninth.
That made Porcello the loser, as the Sox righthander had more tough luck against the Rays.
“He’s had a couple of tough starts against Tampa,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “They’ve capitalized on some pitches up in the strike zone.”
The Rays’ two-run fourth inning could have been avoided if Porcello had some help behind him.
Third baseman Josh Rutledge was tagged for a throwing error on an infield grounder by Longoria, and that opened the door. Two batters later, Rickie Weeks Jr. singled, and Longoria and Weeks later advanced to second and third on a passed ball by Sandy Leon. Tim Beckham then took advantage by lining a two-run single to center.
Tampa Bay padded its lead in the fifth, and this time it was more of Porcello’s doing. He gave up a leadoff single to Derek Norris before Corey Dickerson doubled him home. Two batters later, Longoria followed by taking Porcello’s 91-mph fastball deep over the Green Monster to give the Rays a 5-0 lead.
“I failed to execute a pitch in the fourth,” Porcello said. “Second and third with two outs, a fastball to the middle of the plate. Can’t do that in that situation. Gotta execute pitches and get out of that.
“In the fifth inning I created trouble for myself by falling behind to Norris and then giving up the hit, and then a couple balls driven really well by Dickerson and Longoria.”
By then, the Red Sox offense was playing catch-up, and despite a convincing rally, couldn’t get the hit they needed to complete the comeback bid.
Bogaerts’ first-inning single — which pushed his major league-leading hitting streak to 15 games — was the Sox’ only hit until the seventh, when their bats finally started to heat up.
They also got some help from some poor defense.
Chris Young’s one-out double gave the Sox life, and after Mitch Moreland walked, Rutledge reached on an infield single with Young scoring and Rutledge advancing to second on pitcher Alex Cobb’s wild throw to first.
Leon followed with a two-run ground-rule double to right to make it a 5-3 game. Jackie Bradley Jr. then sent a grounder to Brad Miller, who fumbled the ball twice, and then misfired it as he threw it back to the infield.