Lowe-ring the boom with walk-off homer
TAMPA — Nate Lowe belted a two-run homer off Josh Smith in the 11th inning, rallying the Rays to a 5-4 win over the Red Sox on Saturday night.
Mitch Moreland homered with two outs in the top of the 11th — his third homer in two games — to put the Sox ahead 4-3. After homering twice in Friday night ’s loss, Moreland crushed a pitch from Diego Castillo to right-center.
Smith, the 11th Red Sox pitcher of the night, allowed a leadoff double to Travis d’Arnaud and Lowe followed with a blast just inside the foul pole in left.
The Rays struck first in the third inning after d’Arnaud singled in a run against Mike Shawaryn. Joey Wendle tacked on an RBI single against Colten Brewer, which increased the Sox’s deficit to 2-0.
Xander Bogaerts’s solo shot in the fourth inning cut into the Rays’ lead, but the Sox’s bats were cold. Through the fifth inning, Rays pitchers had 11 strikeouts. The Sox had just three hits: singles by Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. in addition to Bogaerts’ homer.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Rays tacked on another run, this time off Josh Taylor. He struck out Kevin Kiermaier to record the first out but left a fastball over the middle to Willy Adames, who crushed a solo shot to center.
But just as they did Friday, the Sox responded.
Betts got things going in the eighth after he singled to left off Rays reliever Nick Anderson. Rafael Devers then sent a two-run homer to left to tie the game.
It was Devers’s 31st homer of the season, which is the most by a third baseman in Red Sox history. The only other Sox third baseman to have 30 homers in a season was Butch Hobson, who did it in 1977 for the Sox.
Winding down: In addition to Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez, you probably won’t be seeing a lot of the other high-leverage relievers after this Tampa series. As for the position players, Sox manager Alex Cora said there will be conversations with them, too to see where they’re at.
“Obviously there are some special seasons going on,” Cora said. “There are certain goals they want to accomplish, but we’ll talk about it.
I’ll be honest with them, too — one hit, one homer or five RBIs isn’t going to change your season. Don’t worry about it. Just worry about the right things.”
Hembree wants in: Cora said Heath Hembree feels good coming out of his simulated game, and despite the Red Sox being out of the playoff picture, Hembree wants to see the season through.
“He wants to pitch,” Cora said. “Obviously if he’s healthy and we feel that he’s able to compete the way he is, [we] will pitch him.
“And I understand it. He said he put so much work into this and he wants to finish the season on the mound.”