After rallying to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning, the Red Sox handed the lead right back to the Tampa Bay Rays -- for good.
Brandon Lowe, who had homered earlier, went deep again, giving the Rays a 5-4 victory. Marcus Walden gave up the game-winner.
Christian Arroyo had hit a two-run homer in the top of the inning. Michael Chavis homered in the third for the first Red Sox run of the night.
The Red Sox ran with abandon on the bases, stealing six bases, their biggest single-game total in 10 years.
WHO: Red Sox (16-30) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (29-16)
WHEN: 6:40 p.m.
WHERE: Tropicana Field
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: TB 6-2
SERIES TO DATE: 1-1
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 4.98) vs. RHP Tyler Glasnow (2-1, 4.35)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Verdugo RF
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Martinez DH
Plawecki C
Bradley CF
Munoz LF
Chavis 1B
Arroyo 2B
RAYS
Meadows LF
Lowe 2B
Arozarena RF
Choi DH
Wendle 3B
Adames SS
Lowe 1B
Margot CF
Perez C
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
B7th: After the Red Sox tied it up in the top of the inning, it doesn't stay knotted for long. Brandon Lowe crushes a pitch from Marcus Walden DEEP to right. That's his fourth homer this season against the Sox.
T7th: Christian Arroyo ties the game with a two-run smash, drilling a high fastball down the line. He'd hit the ball hard his trips, but there was no doubt about this one.
B6th: Bogaerts with an alert play, backing up the throw on the stolen bases and making sure that, with Devers taking the throw, the baserunner didn't get up and break for third.
T5th: Sloppy baserunning by Chavis, who forgets the number of out and is doubled off second to that inning.
B4th: Walks proved costly for Chris Mazza. He walked two of the first three hitters he faced, then allowed consecutive hard-hit balls, resulting in three runs this inning.
T4th: Three stolen bases in that inning for the Red Sox and a total of four in four innings. They obviously see something in Glasnow's delivery.
T4th: Red Sox manufacture a run in the fourth, as Xander Bogaerts walks, swipes second and third and rides home on a line single to center from Kevin Plawecki.
B3rd: It's likely that's it for Eovaldi, who threw 40 pitches in his return to the mound after missing more than three weeks. Other than the leadoff homer allowed to Meadows, he didn't give up a lot of hard-hit balls and commanded better than might have been expected after a long layoff.
T3rd: Rare instance of Chavis powering a fastball up in the zone. Usually that's the pitch that gives him to much trouble, but he stayed on top of a 98 mph heater and drove it out to CF for his third homer of the season.
B2nd: Michael Chavis with an outstanding grab of a smash right on the line at first, robbing Nate Lowe of extra bases and recording the first out of the inning.
B1st: Yairo Munoz mistimes his leap at the left field wall and Ji-Man Choi has a double.
B1st: Austin Meadows turns on a 100 mph fastball down and in and drives it deep into the RF seats. A rude welcome to Nathan Eovaldi, who falls behind on the first batter he faced in more than three weeks.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- RHP Nathan Eovaldi is set to throw two or three innings, but likely not any more than that, as he's making his first appearance in a little more than three weeks.
- To make room for Eovaldi's activation, the Red Sox optioned LHP Matt Hall to their alternate training site. Because the Sox don't want Hall traveling commercially from Florida back to New England, he'll remain on the team's taxi squad until they return to Boston Thursday night.
- Ron Roenicke said the Sox are being careful with lefty reliever Josh Taylor, who was placed on the IL with left shoulder tendinitis. "It's thinking more long-range for him,'' said Roenicke, "and making sure we're not doing anything that can cause other problems. He's been feeling tight in his arm for probably a week before this. He kind of wanted to just pitch through this, and finally, because of the performance, he thought. 'I probably shouldn't be doing that.' So that's why we brought it up and that's why we put him on the IL to make sure we're not pushing things.''
- Two relief pitchers who tested positive for COVID-19 at the start of camp -- Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez -- have developed injuries in recent weeks. Hernandez is still out with an SC joint injury. "These guys who had sit out a while,'' said Roenicke, ''you think about sitting out for about a month and not doing anything....yeah, I think there's definitely a correlation between that and something happening physically. All that training you do before you come in, you basically lose it. We tried with both of them to spend a lot of time (allowing them to build up). But because we haven't had any experience with the virus, we probably don't know what it does to you.''
- Roenicke said he does expect Hernandez to pitch again this season. He's scheduled to throw a bullpen today.
- The Sox have not yet announced starting pitchers for the Miami series, which begins Tuesday night.