The Red Sox home struggles continued on Sunday afternoon, as the hosts blew a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning on their way to a 5-4 extra-inning loss against the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park. It was another brutal start for Andrew Cashner (1.2 innings, 5 BBs, 3 earned runs allowed) but the Sox still managed to rally to take a 4-3 lead by the sixth inning thanks to some timely hitting and strong bullpen performances by Josh Taylor, Marcus Walden and Nate Eovaldi.
Matt Barnes couldn't close the door though by allowing a solo home run in the eighth inning to Kole Calhoun to tie the game. Calhoun ended up scoring the game-winning run in the tenth off Ryan Weber following an RBI single, giving the Angels a split in the four-game series.
The Red Sox have now dropped 11 of their last 14 games. They now hit the road for Cleveland to start up a three-game series on Monday night.
WHO: Red Sox (62-57) vs. Los Angeles Angels (57-61)
WHEN: 1:05 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: Boston 2-1
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Andrew Cashner (10-7, 4.68) vs. RHP Andrew Heaney (0-0, 3.60)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
Angels
1. Brian Goodwin LF
2. Mike Trout CF
3. Shohei Ohtani DH
4. Albert Pujols 1B
5. Kole Calhoun RF
6. David Fletcher SS
7. Matt Thaiss 3B
8. Max Stassi C
9. Luis Rengifo 2B
Red Sox
Chris Owings 2B
Rafael Devers 3B
Xander Bogaerts SS
JD Martinez RF
Andrew Benintendi LF
Sam Travis DH
Christian Vazquez C
Michael Chavis 1B
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF
Live Updates:
Top 2nd: The Andrew Cashner nightmare for the Red Sox continues. In what ended up being the only trade addition for the team at the deadline, Cashner has been an absolute dud and he delivered his worst outing to date in this one, getting pulled after just 51 pitches and 1.2 innings. He now has an ERA over 8 through six starts for Boston. Josh Taylor was able to get out of the inning to limit the damage to just three runs through two.
Bottom 4th: Some timely hitting and strong relief work by Taylor has managed to get the Sox back into this game. A two-run bomb from Vazquez tied things up at 3 in the fourth while Taylor delivered perhaps his best outing of the year with five strikeouts in 2.2 innings.
Top 8th: Another day, another blown save by the Sox. This time it was Matt Barnes giving up a solo bomb to Kole Calhoun to tie things up at 4 in the 8th. The run spoiled an otherwise great outing by the Sox bullpen that had help the Angels scoreless for five straight innings.
Pregame Notes
The Red Sox promoted Chris Owings to the Major League roster today from Pawtucket, while optioning Hector Velazquez to Pawtucket. …The 27-year-old Owings was batting .325 at Pawtucket and will get the start while batting leadoff today. …The Red Sox are in the midst of playing 34 games in 34 days out of the All-Star Break. …Yesterday’s loss to the Angels snapped a eight-game winning streak against them, the 4th-longest winning streak ever against the franchise. … The Red Sox have won 15 of their last 16 games when one of their starters gives a quality start. They are 32-11 on the season in those games. … Andrew Cashner gave up a season-high three home runs in his last start. He has yet to give Boston a quality start in any appearances. …The Red Sox are 6.5 games out of the second wildcard spot after the Rays won on Saturday. …J.D. Martinez has a nine-game hitting streak.