I had a feeling this game wasn’t going to go the Sox way before it even started. To be fair, that isn’t saying much— most games haven’t gone the Sox way this year! But I knew the vibes would be off as soon as this came across the timeline shortly before the game started:
Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony are the two most important players on the Red Sox. As fun as the sweep in Detroit was, it’s going to be really hard for this team to build any sort of momentum without those two guys healthy playing to the best of their abilities. Tonight’s game showed everyone precisely why that is. The lineup looked punchless, as any lineup with Trevor Story batting cleanup would. The pitching staff couldn’t get big outs when it mattered. And the Sox dropped a listless game to a team they’ll probably need to catch in the standings at some point this season if they’re going to make the playoffs.
Bennett didn’t exactly mow down the opposition. In fact, I would describe his outing as more of the “chugging along” variety. He generated just five swings and misses all night, but managed to keep it close, limit the walks, and pitch into the sixth. Look, folks, the word “stud” is relative tonight.
Like I said, we’re playing a little fast and loose with the studs. Samaniego faced just two batters, coming into the game after Greg Weissert coughed up two runs in the sixth. But he sat those two batters down, as he’s done to most guys so far this season.
He singled in the third and brought home a run on a sac fly in the eighth. That was enough to make him the most productive hitter in the Red Sox lineup tonight — by far.
To a certain extent, Weissert can console himself with the thought that he was BABIPed to death in the sixth inning, when he gave the Rays a two-run lead they would not relinquish on a couple of soft hits. But the fickle nature of the BABIP gods is precisely why it’s so important for relievers who come into tight games to strike dudes out. Weissert did not strike any dudes out, and walked a dude to boot. It’s not his year, folks, which is something that gets said about most middle relievers a few times throughout their mercurial careers.
Ryan Watson, on the other hand, cannot blame the cruel winds of fate for his performance. Watson entered the game in the seventh tasked with holding the Rays lineup at bay long enough for the Sox to get back in the game. The Rays sure looked happy to see him, as they hit him hard and often, putting the game out of reach.
There’s never a good time for a TOOTBLAN. But it’s hard to think of too many worse times for a TOOTBLAN than in the eighth inning of a three-run game with no one out and a runner on second. Contreras’s terrible decision to try to take second after singling while Jarren Duran held up at third base cost the Sox a chance at a big inning.
I’m giving it to the back-breaking TOOTBLAN, the latest deflating moment in a season that’s already had too many.
