BOSTON — Red Sox ace Chris Sale summed it up best.
“Days like this hurt,” Sale said. “There’s no getting around it. It’s a gut punch. We lost a game we should have won easily, honestly. We had a 7-1 lead. We’ve got to have that one.”
The Red Sox had a six-run lead with Sale on the mound in the fourth Monday. But they made four errors and lost 11-10 to the relentless Rays in 10 innings at Fenway Park.
Boston loaded the bases with two outs in the 10th but pinch hitter Kevin Plawecki grounded out to shortstop to end the game.
“On the flip side of that, we showed some fight,” Sale said. “We’re still a gritty team and tomorrow’s going to be here.”
Everything began to unravel for Boston in the fourth inning when center fielder Alex Verdugo and second baseman Taylor Motter made errors on the same play, allowing the Rays to score four unearned runs against Sale.
Nelson Cruz hit a 370-foot fly ball to center field that Verdugo lost in the sun momentarily. Verdugo managed to get his glove on it but he muffed it. It was ruled a three-base error.
Motter, the cutoff man, then overthrew third baseman Rafael Devers, allowing Cruz to score from third base.
“I don’t think there’s much you can do on the ball to Dugie,” Cora said. “It was in the sun. He lost it. And then they scored three. Obviously the throw to third, we gave them an extra run. It was a great bad game all the way to the last hitter and all that. It wasn’t great as far as like throwing to the bases, backing up guys, putting guys away. It’s great we had a chance to tie the game or win it at the end. But at the same time, we can’t give a big league team more than 27 outs and we did.”
Austin Meadows’ inside-the-park home run to lead off the top of the ninth inning tied it 9-9.
Meadows belted a 393-foot fly ball to the center field wall that Verdugo was unable to catch.
The ball caromed away from Verdugo and shortstop José Iglesias hustled into center to retrieve it. Iglesias bobbled the ball momentarily and Meadows sped around the bases to tie it.
Cora said the corner outfielders needed to back up Verdugo on that play.
“A ball to center field, everybody has to crash there,” Cora said.
The Red Sox have made a major league-leading 97 errors.
“We’ve been inconsistent the whole season,” Cora said. “We know that. When we’re catching the ball, we win games. When we’re inconsistent, it’s tough.”
Sale allowed five runs but only one earned run. He gave up 10 hits and one walk while striking out six in 3 ⅔ innings.
“Credit to them against Chris,” Cora said. “They put the ball in play. They were relentless. They put good at-bats, went the other way. But we still didn’t make plays. And I think that’s what cost us.”
Travis Shaw doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. The Rays intentionally walked Verdugo to put two runners on base with no outs.
But Christian Vázquez popped out to the catcher on a sacrifice bunt attempt.
“Obviously he’s one of our best bunters,” Cora said about Vázquez. “And where we were lineup-wise, we were going to be fine. And it just happened he popped it up. It hurts obviously. But we had plenty of chances throughout the game. That one is the one where people will look back and they will talk about it. But I think we had plenty of chances throughout the game to put them away.”
The Red Sox had a chance to take a half game lead for the first AL Wild Card because the Yankees lost earlier.
“There’s no doubt, this one stings,” Sale said. “Losing games the way we just lost this one, it isn’t fun. But like I said, this is sports. If the outcomes are supposed to be known, then we wouldn’t even have to play the game. And that’s why we play the game is because crazy stuff like this can happen. And hey, we’ve been on the flip side of these crazy games. And we’ve won games we shouldn’t have won. And we just obviously lost one that we should have won. So it doesn’t make it feel any better.
“But going through this enough, you’re going to realize that,” Sale added. “Nothing that just happened is going to help us going forward other than the learning experience. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes, correct them and show up tomorrow ready to win.”
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