The Red Sox had their chances late, but never led in the opener of their six-game road trip, falling short of the Chicago White Sox, 4-3.
Jose Abreu clubbed a three-run homer off starter Tanner Houck and the Sox spent the rest of the night trying to catch up.
They managed two runs in the seventh to pull to within a run and had the potential tying run on second with one out in the ninth but couldn't get the equalizer.
WHO: Red Sox (80-62) vs. Chicago White Sox (80-60)
WHEN: 8:10 p.m.
WHERE: Guaranteed Rate Field
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: 2-2
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Tanner Houck (0-3, 3.26) vs. LHP Carlos Rodon (11-5, 2.41)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Schwarber LF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Renfroe RF
Dalbec 1B
Vazquez C
Iglesias 2B
WHITE SOX
Robert CF
Moncada 3B
Abreu 1B
Jimenez DH
Grandal C
Sheets LF
Garcia SS
Goodwin RF
Hernandez 2B
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
B7: After a leadoff walk, Adam Ottavino looks sharper. He's been an adventure of late, but he was able to locate his slider better there,
T7: Off the bench, Alex Verdugo, batting for Iglesias, fights off an inside pitch and drives it on a line to left-center, scoring Danny Santana.
T7: A bloop triple by Dalbec and a groundout to the right side by Valdez, and the Red Sox are back within two.
T5: Bobby Dalbec, only the hottest hitter in the American League since the start of August, cranks a fastball at the top of the zone deep into the LF seats for the Red Sox' first run.
B4: An error by Iglesias and a walk to No. 8 hitter Brian Goodwin prove costly for Houck as Luis Robert reaches out a slashes a single to RF, scoring Gavin Sheets.
B3: Alert play on the part of Christian Vazquez, who fires down to pick off Eloy Jimenez.
B3: Tanner Houck, ahead 0-and-2, tries to get Jose Abreu to chase a slider away but leaves it over the heart of the plate and Abreu hooks it on a line out to left for a three-run homer.
T3: Jose Iglesias gives Carlos Rodon a long, tough at-bat before finally going down swinging on the 12th pitch.
B2: Through two innings, White Sox aren't making hard contact against Tanner Houck -- lots of weak ground balls up the middle.
WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox are 5-3 in September... They are 1-3 in their last 4 games, following a 4-game winning streak...They are 11-9 in their last 20 games. The Red Sox are coming off a 3-3 homestand against CLE (2-1) and TB (1-2)...On Wednesday, they earned their 40th come-from-behind win of the season, a 2-1 victory over the Rays (trailed 1-0 after top of 7th). The Sox improved to 25-15 (.625) in 1-run games, tied for MLB’s 4th-best record...Their 40 comeback wins rank 2nd in the majors, behind only the Rays (43). In 6 of their last 7 wins (including each of their last 3), the Sox were tied or trailing when they came to bat in the 7th inning. ....The Red Sox have played more games than any other team in the majors (142)...They were off yesterday, after completing a stretch of 17 consecutive days with a game (went 10-7 in those games). The Sox finish the season by playing only 20 games in 25 days (off on 9/9, 9/16, 9/20, 9/23, and 9/27)....The Red Sox have 20 games remaining in the regular season (12 road, 8 home)...Their best 20-game stretch of the season was 15-5 from 6/14-7/5. 9 of the Sox’ remaining games are against teams that entered today with a winning record, including all 6 on this road trip (CWS-3, SEA-3, NYY-3)...The Red Sox are 6-14 in their last 20 road games, but they were 4-3 on their last road trip. The Sox have averaged 5.7 runs per game at home (1st in AL), compared to 4.3 on the road (10th in AL). The Red Sox are 5-0-1 in their last 6 series at Guaranteed Rate Field (2014-19), going 13-7 in those games...In their last 3 games here (all wins), they outscored the White Sox, 30-5.....The Red Sox have used 54 players this season, their 4th-most in franchise history...They used 56 players in 2012, and 55 in 1996 and 2014. The Sox have used 31 pitchers, their most in franchise history...That does not include 4 position players who have pitched (Araúz, Arroyo, Gonzalez, Plawecki). 8 players have made their MLB debut with the Red Sox this season (Bazardo, Crawford, Duran, Espinal, López, Sawamura, Whitlock, and Wong)....Red Sox outfielders lead MLB with 39 assists, their most in a season since 1992 (also 39)... They last had 40+ outfield assists in 1987 (47). Hunter Renfroe leads MLB with 16 OF assists, the most in RF by a Red Sox in the expansion era (1961-present)... According to Elias, the only other Red Sox with 15 assists in RF since 1961 is Dwight Evans (3 times)...The Red Sox lead the majors in doubles (293) and XBH (501) and rank 4th in runs per game (5.06), 3rd in AVG (.261), 2nd in SLG (.448), and 3rd in OPS (.775). The Sox rank 4th in the AL with 189 HR...The Sox lead MLB with 35 HR with at least 2 runners on base (32 three-run, 3 grand slams). The Sox have hit 4+ HR in a game 13 times, tied for the most in MLB this season and the 2nd-most of any season in franchise history (15 times in 1977).....The Red Sox feature 6 players who have hit 20+ HR this season: Rafael Devers (33), Kyle Schwarber (29), Renfroe (27), J.D. Martinez (25), Xander Bogaerts (20), and Bobby Dalbec (20). The Sox are the only team featuring as many as 5 players with 50+ XBH (17 teams have 0 or 1)...Dalbec is 1 of 13 Red Sox rookies ever to hit 20+ HR in a season (only 10 have hit more than 20)...Since 7/31 (min. 100 PA), he leads the AL in SLG (.744), OPS (1.152), and wRC+ (201). Among the 103 AL pitchers with at least 60.0 IP this season, Garrett Whitlock ranks 3rd with a 1.86 ERA... He has made 23 scoreless appearances of more than 1.0 IP, the most in MLB....The Red Sox have three of the top OPS leaders in the A.L. since Jiuly 31 (min 100 PA) -- Dalbec is first at 1.152, Renfroe is fourth at 1.027 and Schwarber is fifth at .999.
NOTES:
* The Red Sox made a series of move prior to the game. The team placed Chris Sale on the COVID-IL, placed LHP Austin Davis on the paternity list and optioned Jonathan Arauz to Worcester. Correspondingly, they activated Xander Bogaerts from the COIVID-IL, selected the contract of RHP Kaleb Ort and activated LHP Darwinzon Hernandez.
* Sale is the 10th player to test positive on the Sox in the last two weeks; a handful of others have also been deemed close contacts. Sale did not travel with the team Thursday after testing positive. This is the second time he's tested positive, having also done so last winter. "At this point, nothing shocks me,'' said Alex Cora. "On a daily basis, we go through our process and we just hope for good news. This is where we're at,. It's unfortunate, but he'll be back. He feels good. Hopefully, he can come back right away, right after X amount of days. It's not easy, but this is our reality.''
* The Sox are uncertain about pitching plans beyond Friday. Connor Seabold, who is on the traveling taxi squad, could be called upon to make his major league debut Saturday night, and there's the potential for Nick Pivetta to pitch Sunday. Pivetta remains on the COVID-IL, but is feeling better and could be activated over the weekend.
* A number of other players nearly ready to be activated are with the Sox in Chicago, including Matt Barnes and Martin Perez. Both threw bullpens Friday afternoon in Chicago.
* Martin Perez is with Worcester, set to throw a bullpen Friday and may make a rehab appearance. Meanwhile, infielder Christian Arroyo and Jarren Duran remains sidelined.
* Cora sidestepped questions about Hunter Renfroe, who said in a radio interview Thursday that MLB advised the Red Sox to stop COVID testing and just treat the symptoms. "I can tell you from personal experience that I feel very comfortable with the way we're doing things,'' said Cora. "I think we've been in constant communication with MLB and obviously, our situation is probably different than 27 other teams. But I can tell you, I feel very safe with the way we do things here. Since Day 1 from spring training, all the way to today....We do an outstanding job as an organization.''