Nothing was coming easy for the Red Sox on Monday, but in the top of the ninth it looked as if the club finally broke through when Roman Anthony gave Boston a 4-3 lead with a gutsy RBI single off Minnesota Twins fireballer Jhoan Duran.
Then the thunderstorms moved in and all hell broke loose.
With the Red Sox three outs away from clinching their third straight victory, severe weather moved into the Minneapolis area, prompting a 90-minute rain delay. The game eventually resumed at 12:05 a.m. ET, at which point it only took a couple of minutes for right-hander Jordan Hicks to melt down and blow the save.
The result? A crushing 5-4 walk-off loss.
Hicks allowed a leadoff single and then hit consecutive batters to load the bases with no outs. After Alex Bregman made a phenomenal play to nail the lead runner at home on a groundout, Hicks gave up the game-winning two-run single to Brooks Lee, who sent the small handful of Twins fans that remained at Target Field home happy.
Following the game Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters in Minneapolis that with Aroldis Chapman down and Garrett Whitlock sick, Hicks was the last man available to pitch. He added that Hicks warmed up before the rain delay, so having to sit down and go back out an hour and a half later was a tough situation.
“That was uncomfortable in the sense that he got hot and he had to wait all that time,” Cora said. “Not easy to do, he did try his best but it didn’t work out.”
Even before the disastrous ninth inning, the Red Sox had been playing with fire all night.
Red Sox starter Richard Fitts didn’t have much trouble through the first two innings, but in the bottom of the third his command abandoned him at a costly moment. Fitts first went to a full count against Christian Vazquez before walking the former Red Sox catcher, and then No. 9 hitter DaShawn Keirsey Jr. sent the first pitch he saw into the left field stands for a two-run home run.
What were the odds of that? Keirsey entered Monday as one of baseball’s least productive hitters, batting .099 with one extra-base hit in 74 plate appearances.
Fitts got out of the third without further incident but courted disaster in the fourth when he loaded the bases with no outs. The rookie managed to escape unscathed, however, striking out Ty France and forcing Vazquez into an inning-ending double play.
That kept it a two-run game, and after squandering a pair of early scoring opportunities the Red Sox offense finally came to life.
Abraham Toro led off the fifth with a single against Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson, Anthony drew a walk and Alex Bregman smashed a three-run homer to put the Red Sox ahead 3-2. It was Bregman’s second straight day with a go-ahead home run, putting him at 14 homers on the season.
Fitts was removed following the bases loaded escape after allowing the two runs over four innings on four hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Left-hander Chris Murphy came on and threw a scoreless fifth, but trouble started in the sixth when Murphy allowed a one-out single to Royce Lewis.
Alex Cora went to right-hander Jorge Alcala to face his former team, opting for the anticipated matchup against pinch hitter Harrison Bader. But Alcala was all over the place, allowing Lewis to advance to third on a wild pitch and a passed ball before walking two men to load the bases.
Vazquez tied the game on a sacrifice fly, but once again the Red Sox dodged a bullet as the former Twins reliever struck out Keirsey to end the threat.
By the time the game went to the ninth inning the Red Sox stood at 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position, while the Twins were 1 for 7. Recognizing that it might be tough to sustain a rally against Duran, one of the game’s most dominant closers whose fastball averages well over 100 mph, Cora took an aggressive approach after Toro led off the inning with a walk.
Cora replaced Toro with pinch runner David Hamilton, and the speedy infielder immediately got himself into scoring position by stealing both second and third. Now the Red Sox had the go-ahead run 90 feet away with no outs, and Anthony finished the job by muscling a 101 mph fastball on his hands into right field.
Unfortunately both the Twins and Mother Nature ultimately rained on the Red Sox parade.
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