No ninth life for Red Sox
Rally, but lose again on walkoff
CLEVELAND — The 2019 Red Sox keep waiting to go on a run. They’re getting good at the waiting part.
Despite a valiant ninth-inning rally when they tied the game, the Red Sox still opened their three-game road trip last night against a team that is actually on a run — the Indians — with a 6-5 loss.
Carlos Santana, the first batter in the bottom of a freshly knotted ninth inning, greeted reliever Marcus Walden with a line-drive walkoff home run to lift the Indians to victory.
With the Sox trailing 5-4 entering the ninth, Xander Bogaerts doubled in Mookie Betts (walk) with two outs to tie the game.
Starter Eduardo Rodriguez gave up five runs in the first three of his six innings.
With two outs in the first, Rodriguez let up on the pressure and paid for it. After walking Santana, he gave up a two-run blast to trade deadline pickup Franmil Reyes to put the Indians on top, 2-0.
The Red Sox got one run back in the top of the second after J.D. Martinez led off with a single and then scored on Andrew Benintendi’s double to left. Rodriguez managed a five-batter shutdown inning in the second inning, but the third was a different story.
Santana and Reyes each singled with one out before Jose Ramirez golfed a threerun home run up and over the left field wall to expand the Indians lead to 5-1.
The Red Sox chipped away at the lead in the fourth, which began with Martinez’ 28th home run of the season. Two outs later, Mitch Moreland singled and after advancing to second on a Zach Plesac wild pitch, scored on Brock Holt’s double to bring the Red Sox to within two of the Indians, 5-3.
In the sixth, Moreland hit a single off the leg of reliever Hunter Wood, who had to leave the game.
The Red Sox brought the score to 5-4 in the seventh inning, when leadoff batter Jackie Bradley Jr. flicked an opposite-field fly ball home run.
Darwinzon Hernandez stranded an Indian at third base in the seventh inning. In the top of the eighth, Holt’s lineout to first base squashed a run-scoring opportunity with runners on second (pinch-hitter Sam Travis, double) and third.
Rodriguez’ evening was over after six innings and 113 pitches. He allowed five runs on 10 hits and three walks, with five strikeouts and the two home runs. He extended his streak of throwing at least five innings to 19 of his last starts.