The Boston Red Sox provided the naked minimum for the offensive performance (one hit) against the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2-0 loss in the playoff game on Thursday night, which further damaged the team’s already faint hopes of a playoff spot.
“(I’ve) seen the same thing happening for a month and a half,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We’re not executing. Like I said, we used to be the best offense in baseball against right-handers and now we’re not scoring runs. … I think it started with the home game against Houston (in August) and we couldn’t score consistently. There are big plays here and there, but I think overall we couldn’t score.”
Cora added: “We are all in a crisis at the moment.”
Boston had nothing on its hands during the right-hander’s dominant seven-inning performance against Tampa Bay starting pitcher Zack Littell. Littell began the one-hitter with seven strikeouts and no walks before the Rays relied on their bullpen to shut down the Red Sox, which proved to be a piece of cake. Boston went hitless over the final five innings of the night, getting just one runner on base and retiring 11 times in 28 at-bats. The Rays held the Red Sox to the worst offensive performance of Boston’s 2024 season, and that didn’t help the club’s chances of a wild card in the American League, either.
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Instead of being three games ahead of the Minnesota Twins, who lost on Thursday, Boston fell to four games behind. With nine games remaining, the odds seem bleak, but the team is not complete straight out.
“There’s a chance,” Cora said, according to NESN. “… But Detroit is tied and Seattle is ahead of us, so it’s a tough battle. Realistically, it’s very tough, but we still have three games against (the Twins).”
Here are more notes from the Red Sox game against the Rays on Thursday night:
— Brayan Bello pitched 5 2/3 innings on the mound, allowing one earned run on five hits and two walks and striking out seven Rays batters on 101 pitches. Although Bello put in a very workable performance on the mound, the right-hander’s season record dropped to 14-8 with the loss, explaining that there was discussion before it was officially announced that he would pitch in Tampa Bay.
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“We had a conversation with (Andrew) Bailey in New York and he asked me if I would be willing to pitch here and I said, ‘Yeah, whatever the team needs, I’ll be ready,'” Bello said through Spanish translator Carlos Villoria, as seen in NESN’s postgame coverage. “And I was definitely willing to pitch here.”
— Rookie infielder Nick Sogard had the only base hit, a single in the third inning, to save the Red Sox from a no-hit loss to the Rays.
— Boston has a .219 batting average with 50 extra-base hits and 173 strikeouts over its last 17 games, while averaging just 3.4 runs and going 6-11 down the stretch.
— The Red Sox made as many errors as they had hits Thursday night, bringing the team’s point total this season to an MLB-high 109. They are also baseball’s leader in the number of unearned runs they’ve allowed (90), 12 ahead of the second-place Washington Nationals.
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— Boston finished the seven-game road trip 2-5 with a batting average of .179 and a run differential of minus-5, for an average of 2.7 runs per game.
— The Red Sox return to Fenway Park to face the Minnesota Twins. First pitch Friday night is set for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game and the entire 90 minutes of pregame coverage live on NESN.
