Sox avoid no-no, lose on walk-off HR instead
Bobby Dalbec and Trevor Story were right in the center of the action as the Red Sox lost a wild 3-2 game to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night.
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Dalbec finally came through in the top of the 10th inning to get the Red Sox on the board, but appeared to misstep on his way toward first base to receive a throw from Story that sailed wide and kept the Rays alive with two outs in the bottom of the inning.
The very next hitter, Kevin Kiermaier, sent the Tropicana Field crowd into a frenzy with a two-run, walk-off homer against Hansel Robles.
Here are the takeaways:
Sox held hitless through nine innings
It was a bullpen game for the Rays, who started the game with two innings from J.P. Feyereisen, then used six more pitchers to complete the game. The Sox had no hits until the 10th inning, but did have five walks in that span.
The Rays also caught the Red Sox at a time when their bats haven’t been working, and until Saturday night, nobody’s bat has been as cold as Dalbec’s.
The 26-year-old entered Saturday with a .159 average and .479 OPS through the first 12 games, a small sample size but a somewhat notable one, particularly given the impressive play of one of the organization’s top prospects, Triston Casas, down at Triple-A Worcester.
And it was Dalbec who missed one of the Sox’ only opportunities earlier in the game, when he stepped up with two men on and two outs, but he struck out swinging on three pitches to move to 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position this year.
In the 10th, facing right
hander Matt Wisler, Dalbec fell behind 0-2 before somehow making contact with a slider off the plate and slicing it down the right-field line. The ball bounced past a diving Brett Phillips to count as the Sox’ first hit of the day and score the ghost runner from second base. Christian Vazquez drove in Dalbec on a sacrifice fly and the Sox were in business as they took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the inning.
Robles can’t close it
As players shuffle roles on the Sox’ pitching staff, Robles is starting to look like the Red Sox’ top choice in the bullpen
But the 31-year-old could not close out the 10th inning for his second save of the season. He struck out the first two guys before Story made a game-changing error.
The play in question was a groundball to second base off the bat of Taylor Walls with two outs. The ghost runner who started at second had been moved to third by a balk. Then Walls hit the routine grounder to Story, who stumbled and made a throw a little to the left of where Dalbec was set up. Dalbec’s feet got mixed up
and he fell down as he missed the scoop to keep the Rays in the game.
“Just a bad throw,” Story told reporters in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Probably had a little more time than I thought. But that’s on me. All on me for sure.”
Kiermaier than handled a 96-mph heater down the middle and crushed it over the right-field fence for his first home run of the season.
The two-run homer was the first time Robles had allowed an earned run in the regular season since Aug. 29 of last year.
Whitlock sensational
What Garrett Whitlock is doing right now is special.
Not since Chris Sale have the Red Sox had such a dominant, overpowering and incommand pitcher as Whitlock has been to start the 2022 season.
Making his first career big league start in his 51st big league appearance, Whitlock sliced through a scary Rays’ lineup with ease over four innings. He needed just 48 pitches to do it, and he struck out a career-high seven batters in the process. These were pretty strikeouts, too. The 97-mph sinker was spotted on the corners and at one point Randy Arozarena struck out while throwing his bat at a slider in the dirt.
“It was a lot of fun,” Whitlock told reporters. “I hadn’t done it in an actual game since 2019 so it was kind of fun to get back doing that again. But you know, it is what it is.”
Whitlock now has a 1.76 ERA through his first 87 innings in the big leagues and the Sox might have to consider letting Whitlock stay in the starting rotation full-time.
The Sox then turned to their B-set of relievers, going to Austin Davis, Kutter Crawford and Tyler Danish, and all three were sensational on their way to giving Robles the save chance in the 10th.