The Red Sox ought to be pretty upset with what happened on Tuesday night.
They didn’t necessarily miss Jarren Duran, who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and thus ineligible to play in a crucial series against the Toronto Blue Jays, because Rob Refsnyder looked just fine while hammering a game-tying, two-run homer in straight-away center field in the seventh.
But the Red Sox sure missed Tanner Houck, their unvaccinated closer, in the ninth inning.
Tyler Danish and Hansel Robles combined to blow the save as the Blue Jays scored two in the ninth to complete a 6-5 comeback win.
It knocked the Sox back behind the Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card race.
Trouble in the ninth inning? Welcome back, old friend.
Look back to the terrible parts of April/May and few things stand out the way their closer problem did. Tuesday night’s loss was the seventh extra-innings loss of the season for the Red Sox. In all seven of them, the Red Sox were leading after the eighth inning.
Instead of popping a cold Molson Canadian to celebrate a gigantic win in Canada, the Red Sox completed an unusual bingo card of being walked-off on in all five American League East ballparks this year, a stat that NESN’s Tom Caron read with a somber tone on the postgame show.
How else could the Red Sox feel but upset?
It’s hard to remember another time in recent baseball history that players willingly chose not to be available for their team in a series with serious playoff implications, but the Red Sox learned two important things on Tuesday night: they’ve got some outfield depth in Refsnyder, but they sure need help in the bullpen.
“We go with the 26 players that are here,” manager Alex Cora told reporters in Toronto. “We tried to get 27 outs and didn’t do it.”
It should’ve been a tremendous comeback win.
Starting pitcher Michael Wacha didn’t look good, but the Sox clawed their way back thanks to a pair of huge hits.
In the sixth, Trevor Story reached down for a breaking ball and hit a line-drive homer over the left-field wall to pull his team within two. Then in the seventh, Refsnyder walloped one over the center-field wall for a two-run shot that tied the game, 4-4.
A line-drive RBI single by Christian Vazquez in the eighth put the Red Sox ahead, if only they could hang on.
Unfortunately, Cora had a tricky time maneuvering the bullpen without Houck.
John Schreiber, the darling of the bullpen the last month, was the choice in the seventh inning, leaving Cora with two innings to go against one of the best lineups in the game.
Danish, who blew a game last time the Sox were in Toronto, handled a scoreless eighth, but Cora sent him back out to start the ninth and Danish didn’t look as sharp.
He gave up a single to Alejandro Kirk and walked George Springer, then Cora took the ball from Danish and handed it to Robles, who allowed back-to-back singles to Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the Jays scored two runs and started celebrating.
Lefty Matt Strahm was never used, and Cora offered no explanation for his bullpen choices when asked by reporters in Toronto.
“That’s the way I managed the game,” he said. “I’m the manager here and I decided to go with (Danish) for two outs.”
Cora sounds frustrated.
Whether he’s upset with the question or the fact that he’s forced to play without his leadoff hitter, Duran, and his closer, Houck, is unclear.
Refsnyder has proven that Duran took a bold gamble deciding not to get vaccinated because he’s now losing playing time at a moment when he’s finally playing well at the big league level. Instead, Refsnyder is proving he, too, deserves the playing time.
He has a hit in all 13 of his games with the Sox this year, and he’s a dynamite defender in the outfield on top of that.
Meanwhile in the bullpen, Cora has generally done a terrific job holding it together given the lack of proven talent he has to work with. But a lot of that has to do with Houck, who has been a save machine since Cora handed him the ninth inning.
It’s too bad, too. The Sox were on a roll.
They had won seven in a row coming into Toronto. They’ve been playing well for two months, going 33-17 over their last 50 games coming into Toronto. But with just five of those games coming against A.L. East opponents, this week’s series was their chance to prove that they could play with anybody.
Instead, they proved that they’re just as capable of beating themselves.
