TORONTO -- The box score will tell you the Red Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays when closer Craig Kimbrel allowed a walk-off homer to Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the 10th inning Tuesday night.
But if that's not downright inaccurate, it's at least misleading.
Actually, the Red Sox may well have lost the game an inning earlier.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Red Sox had the bases loaded, two outs and Jays closer Roberto Osuna on the ropes. Brock Holt, who already had produced two hits, contributed a third with a line single to left. Rafael Devers, leading off third, trotted home with the tying run.
The Red Sox had rebounded from an early 3-0 deficit with a run in the sixth and now two in the ninth, and had Mookie Betts waiting on deck.
But Betts never got to the plate because, well, neither did Eduardo Nunez. And that was a problem since, in failing to do so, Nunez made the final out of the inning.
For that, you can blame Carlos Febles, who in a lapse of judgment, decided to wave Nunez home. That calculus was off by, oh, 20 or so feet -- the distance between Nunez and Toronto catcher Russell Martin when he received the throw from Granderson.
Holt's game-tying knock (00:24)
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