Final: Rays 8, Red Sox 5

The Red Sox' 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays -- their third straight overall -- was filled with familiar issues: poor starting pitching and suspect relief work at the wrong time.

Rick Porcello was rocked for five runs in the first two innings and six overall, allowing three homers. Over his last starts, Porcello has a 9.35 ERA.

The Sox chipped away with solo runs in the fourth and fifth, but Heath Hembree threw gas on the fire in the seventh, allowing two runs, and almost cancelling out the three runs the Sox would go on to score in the bottom of the inning.

The Sox are just 1-7 at Fenway against the Rays this season.

WHO: Red Sox (59-49) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (61-48)
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: TB 1-0
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: TB 7-6
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Rick Porcello (9-7, 5.55) vs. RHP Andrew Kittredge (1-0, 3.05)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM

IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:

10:31  Christian Vazquez fans to open the bottom of the eighth, his second strikeout tonight. He's just 4-for-24 on this homestand.

10:05  Kevin Kiermaier was playing in deep Kenmore Square, so a routine flyball to medium CF drops in for Martinez and knocks in a run.

9:54   Michael Chavis homers into the Monster Seats. That's just his third homer in 21 games in the month of July.

9:42  Heath Hembree gives up a run in the seventh - that's the fourth time he's been scored upon in his last seven appearances.

9:08 Porcello gives up his third homer of the night -- a two-out, solo shot to Willy Adames -- and the Rays lead 6-2. End of the night for Porcello, who gives way to Darwinzon Hernandez.

8:38 Porcello put the Sox in a huge hole, trailing 5-0 after an inning and a half. Since then, he's retired six of eight and the Sox have chipped away with two solo runs. Still a long way to go to catch up.

LINEUPS



RED SOX

Betts RF
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Martinez DH
Benintendi LF
Travis 1B
Vazquez C
Chavis 2B
Bradley CF

RAYS

Choi DH
Meadows LF
d'Arnaud C
Lowe 1B
Garcia RF
Kiermaier CF
Duffy 3B
Sogard 2B
Adames SS

 

WHAT's UP: The Red Sox dropped their second game in a row Tuesday night, 6-5...Thirty-four of the last 60 games between the Sox and Rays have been decided by one or two runs, including one run in each of the last three...The visiting teams are 11-2 in the series between the clubs this season...The game took 4:05 to complete Tuesday night. It was the 11th game involving the Red Sox to take more than four hours, the most for any team. The Rays are second with nine  such games...The Sox have played only 23 games that have last three hours or less, 1o fewer than any other team...The Sox and Rays each used seven pitchers Tuesday night...It marked just the fourth ninth-inning game in 2019 to feature at least 14 pitchers...The game marked the eighth time this season that the Sox have used seven or more pitchers in a nine-inning game, more than any other team...The Sox have homered in 15 straight home games, the longest such streak since 1969...Andrew Benintendi has homered in 15 straight, the longest streak of his career...Benintendi also has three three-hit games in a row, joining Mike Greenwell as the only Red Sox player with at least three hits and at least one homer in three straight games, according to Elias Sports Bureau...No player anywhere has done it in four straight games since 1900...In his last eight games Benintendi is 18-for-35 (.514) with 12 RBI, 10 runs and eight extra-base hits....Rafael Devers extended his hitting streak to 10 game Tuesday night, his third 10-game streak this season...Devers has at least one double in each of his last five games....During his 10-game stretch, he's slugging .783....LHP Darwinzon Hernandez has struck out 24 of the 54 batters (44.4 percent). Among pitchers who have faced at least 50 batters, only Milwaukee's Josh Hader (50.8 percent) has a better strikeout rate...In relief, Hernandez is unscored upon in 8.1 IP while limiting hitters to a .194 (6-for-31) average. Lefty hitters are 1-for-14...The Sox now rank third in MLB with 77 first-inning runs...They scored just 33 in their first 80 games, but have since scored 44 in their last 28....Xander Bogaerts has hit in five straight (10-for-25) with two homers and five RBI....Brock Holt is hitless in his last seven at-bats...Sam Travis is hitting .360 (9-for-25) with two homers and five RBI in 12 games since being recalled earlier this month....Rick Porcello has won his last four starts.....The Sox are 12-5 in his last 17 starts...In his last two Fenway starts, the Red Sox have scored a total of 26 runs in support...He's 0-1 with a 4.63 ERA in two starts against Tampa Bay this season....Matt Duffy (9-for-21) is hitting .429 against Porcello this season while Avisail Garcia is 11-for-27 (.407) with two homers.....Mookie Betts is 14-for-43 (.326) against Andrew Kitteredge, with J.D. Martinez is 8-for-18 with three homers.