Good ol' Wade. They let you down, Wade. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images North America)
The Red Sox, before losing to the Rays 4-3 on Sunday, continued to shuffle their roster. Rick Porcello was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a “right triceps strain” aka “he stinks.” Rumor has it that Henry Owens, he of the gigantic hands, will be replacing Porcello in his first major league start on Tuesday in Yankee Stadium.
Sunday’s game started out in the usual way: Wade Miley served up a full count fastball to light-hitting Brandon Guyer, who, of course, took it over the Green Monster and into the AAA-Mapfre Insurance sign for an immediate 1-0 lead.
But in holding true to another recent trend, the Sox quickly bounced back from an early deficit in the bottom of the 1st. Hanley Ramirez took the first pitch he saw from Jake Odorizzi off the right edge of the Monster to double in Xander Bogaerts, who’d singled and stolen second. And Mike Napoli gave Boston the lead with a ground ball RBI single through the left side on a high fastball. 2-1, Boston.
David Ortiz padded the Sox’ one-run lead with an RBI double of his own in the bottom of the 3rd, this one hitting the top of the scoreboard and scoring Bogaerts again, who came around from first after being hit by a pitch.
Miley, meanwhile, was on a hot streak after his game-opening mistake. He’d retired 11 out of 12 batters (having only given up an infield single in the 3rd) when, with 2 outs in the 4th, he gave up a single to Asdrubal Cabrera and a double to James Loney. Cabrera came around from first and the score stood at 3-2, Boston.
The score remained 3-2 when Kevin Kiermaier hit a two-out triple off Miley in the top of the 7th. Miley had thrown 120 pitches (!) at this point, so he got the hook in favor of Robbie Ross, Jr., who proceeded to do Robbie Ross, Jr. things. He hit catcher Curt Casali to start, then walked Guyer before mercifully striking Joey Butler out to escape the bases-loaded situation he’d manufactured.
After the Sox went down in order in their half of the 7th, Junichi Tazawa came in to relieve Ross and, well, things just aren’t going well for Taz right now. My theory that I threw out the other night that he’s better when he has a clean inning to work with didn’t get a lot of support here. Evan Longoria doubled on the second pitch he saw from Tazawa, and after a Logan Forsythe popout, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a ground rule double over Rusney Castillo’s head to tie the game. The real bummer, though, came when James Loney hit a blooper to center between Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. It dropped for a single and brought Cabrera around to score. Giving up a bloop single to lose a game never feels quite right.
Because they did lose from there. Five out of the last seven Boston batters struck out swinging, which is a fine and honorable way to go down, but it’s no less of a loss for the trying.