The Sox lost two out of three and fell to 7-9 on the season. They’ve lost all three series against American League East teams so far, going 1-2 each against the Yankees, Blue Jays and Rays.
The takeaways from Sunday:
1. The offense can’t get going.
The Red Sox’ calling card this season has been aggression at the plate, and for the first inning on Sunday, that looked like it was finally going to start working.
Trevor Story and Kiké Hernandez swung at the first two pitches of the game by Rays’ starter Shane McClanahan. Story doubled, then Hernandez singled him home. Xander Bogaerts added another first-pitch single and Alex Verdugo singled on the second pitch of his at-bat as the Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first inning by swinging early in the count.
But McClanahan found his groove and settled in, taking advantage of the Sox’ aggression and throwing seven innings on just 86 pitches.
It’s no different than usual for them. The Sox rank 30th out of 30 while seeing just 3.7 pitches per plate appearance this year. They chase bad pitches outside the zone 32% of the time, the worst rate in the big leagues.
Hitting coach Peter Fatse called it a “double-edged sword” earlier in the week and likes that his hitters are being aggressive, but it hasn’t been working thus far.
The Red Sox have been held to four runs or fewer in each of their last seven games. They’ve gone 2-5 while scoring 2.3 runs per game in that stretch.
A big issue has been finding a leadoff hitter. Hernandez and Story have shared that spot and have posted a combined .254 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot, which ranks 24th in MLB. Story is 4-for-17 since being moved to the top of the order.
It doesn’t help that the Sox have been without J.D. Martinez, who is out with left adductor tightness.
2. Rich Hill finally put together a good start
Hill, 42, entered with a 7.00 ERA through his first two starts of the season, but had a better curveball on Sunday and was able to work around some spotty command to keep the Rays off balance. He kept them scoreless through four innings, holding them to four hits and three walks, striking out one.
3. Where was Tanner Houck?
The Red Sox have been saying all week they were planning to piggy-back Houck behind Hill, since they won’t be able to bring Houck with them to Canada because of his vaccination status.
But it was Phillips Valdez who relieved Hill in the fifth inning. Valdez, who has been mostly used in low-leverage situations, was wild in this one. He faced four batters, hitting two of them, walking another and recording just one when he departed the game with the bases loaded.
Ryan Brasier relieved him and promptly allowed a two-run double to Ji-Man Choi. Manny Margot punched another one across with a fielder’s choice and the Rays took a 3-2 lead.
Matt Barnes and Jake Diekman each allowed a run and the Sox had used five pitchers while losing 5-2 before they finally warmed up Houck.
Houck looked dominant in 1-2/3 innings, striking out two, but it was too little, too late in this one.
