The Red Sox came home to Fenway for a quick 3 games series with the Rays before heading back out on the road again. The Sox had Rick Porcello on the mound vs. Alex Cobb for the Rays. The 4th and 5th inning would spell disaster for Porcello and the Rays would end up doing more damage then the Sox could make up for. The Sox had a chance to tie or even take the lead, but they ended up a run short by the end of the 9th.
The game stayed scoreless until the top of the 4th. Porcello allowed two runs to score in the inning and gave the Rays the lead. The inning started with an error from Rutledge at third. It seems rare these days that we don’t have an error from third in the game. There was also a passed ball from Leon and it seemed like the Sox defense was working against Porcello. Porcello gave up the two runs when he gave up a 2 run RBI single to Beckham. Sox 0-2.
The 5th inning didn’t get any better for Porcello. The Rays scored 3 more runs when Porcello gave up an RBI double to Dickerson and then a 2 run homer to Longoria. Sox 0-5. Porcello pitched through 6 innings and because of the errors in the 4th, he qualifies for a quality start. Porcello also qualifies to take the loss with the home team being down 5 runs. His pitching line for the night was 105 pitches, 6 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 0 BB and 7 Ks.
Robbie Ross Jr. pitched a scoreless 7th and then the Sox offense finally got something going in the bottom of the inning. Rutledge hit an RBI single to score Young and then got to 2nd on a throwing error from the Rays catcher. Leon then hit a 2 run RBI ground rule double to have the Sox only down 2 runs. Jackie Bradley Jr. then was safe at first by a throwing error and Leon was able to come home to score. The defense was now falling apart for the Rays and it ended with the Sox scoring 4 runs. Sox 4-5.
Heath Hembree came out and pitched a scoreless 8th inning and then the Sox looked like they were going to at least tie the game in the bottom of the inning. The Sox had a runner at 3rd with one out, but then Moreland struck out and Rutledge ground out to end the inning. Heath Hembree went back out for the 9th. Hembree gave up a single and got an out before being pulled in favor of Robby Scott. Scott got the two outs to end the inning and keep it just one run. The Sox offense went down in order in the bottom of the 9th and the Rays squeaked out a victory.
Red Sox 4 Rays 5 BOXSCORE
WP: Cobb (3-3) LP: Porcello (2-5) SV: Colome (9)
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