Bad bounce, bad showing
Defense, pitching, bats all disappoint in setback
One bad hop led to a sloppy and forgettable afternoon at Fenway Park yesterday.
Jackie Bradley Jr. has surely had better days in center field.
Bradley curved his route to approach what looked like a Denard Span single in the second inning, but the ball took an unforeseen left turn after it hit the grass. He tried to lower his body to get a glove on it, but his approach was too aggressive and the ball skipped under his mitt and rolled all the way to the wall for an inside-the-park home run.
It was a two-run mistake and it began a nightmarish day for the Red Sox, who struck out 14 times, left 10 guys on base, walked five batters, gave up 18 hits, made one official error and added a few more ugly plays on defense on their way to a 12-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, their second loss in as many days against the Rays — who have won eight straight.
“I tried to take the appropriate angle in order to try and make a play and I missed it,” Bradley said afterward.
The Sox have now lost five of their last seven after starting the year 17-2.
“It wasn’t a good game, obviously,” said manager Alex Cora.
While Bradley blamed himself, Cora and starter David Price blamed the hop.
“That happens,” Cora said. “You saw the hop. It wasn’t the best one. It was a misplay and we’re not going to complain about his defense. That kid dove in the ninth inning with the game out of hand (to make a diving catch in right field). It just happened. You saw the ball it had a weird spin and went by him.”
“It took a funky hop,” said Price. “Jackie has saved many runs for every pitcher on this staff. He’s the best center fielder in baseball in my eyes. He’s trying to make a play and it got a funky hop.”
If only a bad hop was to blame for the rest of the afternoon.
Price gave up a season-high six runs, five earned, during 52⁄3 innings as his ERA jumped to 3.78 through six starts.
He was staked to a 1-0 lead in the first, when the Sox loaded the bases to start the game only to score one on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly and Rafael Devers struck out to end the inning.
They loaded the bases again in the bottom of the third, and again they scored only one run when Bogaerts singled. The bases still loaded, Devers struck out again, Eduardo Nunez lined out and Bradley struck out.
Price was never in command of this one. The two-run mistake by Bradley didn’t help, then Price served up an 80-mph hanging curve for Wilson Ramos and knew it was gone as soon it was struck. Ramos hammered it over everything in left and the Rays took a 4-3 into the fourth inning.
What more could go wrong? Mookie Betts doubled to start the fourth, then scored two plays later when Hanley Ramirez singled him home to tie the game, but he tweaked his right hamstring and never returned to play defense.
The Sox could’ve used him at second base, where Nunez had a difficult day. Christian Vazquez let a passed ball squeak by him and then Nunez threw one into the Sox’ dugout after fielding a slow roller for another Rays run in the sixth to break a 5-5 tie.
Nunez also let a hard-hit bouncing grounder go by him and fell down when fielding a relay throw.
It was all Rays from there. Carlos Gomez hit a moonshot homer off Heath Hembree in the seventh inning for another Rays run. And No.9-hitter Johnny Field hit his first career homer, a three-run shot off an 87-mph middle-middle fastball by Brian Johnson in the ninth.
J.D. Martinez had a rough day at the plate, going 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts. He left six men on base.
“I do think we’re expanding the zone,” Cora said. “Teams go through stretches like this. … We just have to get back, get back in the strike zone and stay away from the marginal pitches and look for pitches in the middle of the zone.”