ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The loss was bad enough. How it unfolded at times made it sting all the more for the Red Sox.
In dropping Game of the ALDS to the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-0, the Sox were outplayed by the Rays in every way imaginable.
But the way two of the runs were scored only added to the Red Sox' misery index.
With the Rays already leading 2-0 in Nelson Cruz got a hold off a hanging slider from Nick Pivetta and crushes it to left. But on its way, the ball struck the "C RIng'' catwalk suspended from the Tropicana Field catwalk, landing in medium center. As Red Sox outfielders Alex Verdugo and Kike Hernandez scrambled to retrieve the ball, umpires in the infield signaled home run, citing the ballpark's ground rules.
It was the fifth fair ball to hit the catwalk in the postseason play at the Trop.
"Obviously, that's always like a topic of discussion whenever you're coming to play here,'' offered Christian Arroyo, a former member of the Rays. "But, you know, I mean, that's the ground rules, That's what they're set, It's part of it. It's the same thing when you get three strikes and you take a third strike -- you're out. So it's part of the game, and it's part of the ground rules here. I mean, there's really nothing you can do about it.
"It threw me off because I thought (Verdugo) was camped under it and then I saw the ball bounce and then I saw Nelson Cruz jogging, so I was really, really confused. But it is what it is.''
That one, at least, the Red Sox couldn't control.
That wasn't the case in the seventh, however.
The Rays were up leading 4-0 when a two-out walk to Randy Arozarena was followed by a double by rookie wunderkind Wander Franco. The Sox summoned lefty Josh Taylor to face Brandon Lowe.
The Sox had the infield shifted around, with third baseman Rafael Devers playing well off the bag, nearly to shortstop on the lefty-swinging Lowe. With no one holding him on, Arozarena took a lengthy lead, darting almost half way down the line. Pitching out of the stretch, with his back toward third, Taylor stopped off the rubber once to disrupt Arozarena's timing, but then, seemingly forgot about the baserunner and focused on Lowe.
Newly emboldened, Arozarena sprinted for the plate and Taylor was slow to recognize what was happening. Eventually, he hurried a throw to catcher Christian Vazquez, but Arozarena slid in safely for the fifth run of the night.
"I noticed that (Taylor) wasn't really watching for me or covering for me,'' explained Arozarena, "and I saw the third baseman playing pretty far away. in respect to where I was at. I was looking over to (third base coach Rodney) Linares, telling him, 'Hey, I'm going to go, I'm going to go.' I peeked over and saw Cash give him the green light as well, so that's when I decided to take off.''
"They did a good job,'' said Cora of the Rays. "(Arozarena) was playing with (Taylor) the whole at-bat. We were close to him and then he he got back to the bag. And then he kind of timed him perfectly and he took off. It caught everybody by surprise. It's a great baseball play. I think JT was actually paying attention but probably, with two strikes, he had Lowe with two strikes and probably the concentration was with the hitter. Just put him away. And Randy had an amazing jump and that was an amazing baseball play.''
And the perfect way to punctuate a really bad night for the Red Sox.