It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish it.
And in the case of the Red Sox Monday night, the evening began on the high note of Jarren Duran’s leadoff home run, and was all downhill from there.
Boston had chances all night long, at least one baserunner in nine of 10 innings, but their clutch factor was M.I.A. and in the bottom of the 10th, it was the Phillies who triumphed, albeit in one of the most bizarre endings baseball has seen in a long time:
A walk-off on bases-loaded catcher’s interference, determined on a replay review.
Phillies win, 3-2.
According to Jayson Stark, it’s the first catcher’s interference walk-off in all of Major League Baseball since at least 1971.
“That’s the rule,” manager Alex Cora told reporters.
What a waste of one of Walker Buehler’s best starts of the season.
Trouble typically finds Buehler in the first or fourth inning this year – opponents entered Monday hitting .338 with a 1.048 OPS and .373 with a 1.180 OPS, respectively, in the first and fourth – and it was the case Monday, too. The Phillies tied and took a 2-1 lead on three consecutive one-out hits off Buehler in the fourth.
Able to rebound from the damage, Buehler exited on a high note. He retired all but one of his last 12 batters, including the final seven in a row.
In total: two runs (one earned) on six hits, one walk, and four strikeouts. For the third time this year, and first time since June 11, Buehler completed seven innings. By earned runs, it was his stingiest showing since May 20 and his fourth time yielding no more than one.
“The stuff was really good,” lauded Cora. “That was a great outing against a good offensive club… That was tremendous.”
Buehler outlasted one of the National League’s most consistent starters of the last half-decade; since the start of the ‘21 season, only Logan Webb has more outings of at least 6.1 innings (64) than Zack Wheeler (63). In such starts, Wheeler’s 1,000 strikeouts outpaced all NL arms by a margin of 91, at minimum.
Initially it seemed as though the Red Sox would chase Wheeler from the game early, when Duran took the Phillies ace deep to lead off the game and Boston collected several hits.
But after that leadoff bang, the Red Sox whimpered through the next four innings. They tallied at least one hit in each of the first four frames, but bailed Wheeler out of every jam they created, and he was able to settle in.
The Red Sox extended the same courtesy to relievers Tanner Banks, Orion Kerkering, and old friend Matt Strahm (‘22 Red Sox).
“We had our chances, we didn’t cash in. But shoot, that guy, he’s one of the best if not the best in the big leagues,” Cora said of Wheeler.
According to MLB’s Sarah Langs, it was his fifth start with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks, the highest single-season total by a Phillies pitcher in at least the last 125 seasons.
In a high-stakes eighth inning, Aroldis Chapman worked around Edmundo Sosa’s pinch-hit leadoff single from the No. 9 spot. The lineup turnover couldn’t rattle the 37-year-old All-Star, who got Trea Turner to line out and Kyle Schwarber to fly out, both to Duran in left. Sosa advanced to second on a wild pitch, only to watch as Chapman blew Bryce Harper away with a 99.9 mph sinker.
Garrett Whitlock dominated the ninth inning, needed 13 pitches (11 for strikes) to punch out the side.
In the 10th, the Red Sox, already 0-6 in extra-inning contests on the road this season, failed to bring home the automatic runner.
Each wasted opportunity taunted Boston as Jordan Hicks loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning.
But as many times as the Red Sox have lost this season, this ending was unlike any other. With the diamond full, Sosa swung. Upon review, the crew chief announced catcher’s interference on Carlos Narváez. The rookie’s mitt had made contact with Sosa’s swing.
Sosa was awarded first base, but it was a mere formality.
Game over.
No surgery for Houck
Tanner Houck has been shut down indefinitely, but doesn’t need surgery at the present, Alex Cora announced Monday.
Houck’s rehab assignment was due to expire last week, but rather than activate or option the right-hander, the Red Sox returned him to the injured list.
