All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Rays, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
Sox can't produce at the plate: It's the first week of September and the Red Sox are still suffering from the same offensive problem: poor situational hitting. It was more of the same Wednesday night as they had more hits than the Rays (six to four), but couldn't produce a single run. In four of their nine innings, the Red Sox had multiple baserunners, but it didn't translate into anything on the scoreboard. Instead of making contact or playing small ball, the Sox missed chance after chance. Nine strikeouts didn't help the cause, and neither did the fact that they failed to score a run in 10 plate appearances when they had at least one baserunner in scoring position.
Pivetta pitches well, but not long enough: Starter Nick Pivetta was saddled with the loss, but he allowed just a solo run over his five innings of work. That came in the fifth when a leadoff double, a deep fly ball and an infield single accounted for the only run the Rays would need. Pivetta struggled early, issuing two walks in the first and another in the second. Seven times in the first two innings, he ran the count full. The leadoff double by Francisco Mejia in the fifth was, in fact, the first hit off him. But because Pivetta was so inefficient in the first two innings, needing 51 pitches just to record the first six outs, he didn't have much left in the tank after five, having thrown 101 pitches by that point.
The Trop a nightmare for the Red Sox: Wednesday marked the final regular season game at Tropicana Field for the Red Sox, and they must have felt like throwing a party to celebrate that fact. The Sox won the first game at the Trop on April 22, 4-3....and then proceeded to lose the next nine games they played there. Many of the defeats were like Wednesday's: close, relatively low-scoring, but losses nonetheless. "We didn't put the ball in play, we didn't hit the ball hard with men in scoring in position,'' said Alex Cora. "We expanded against them in certain situations. Offensively, we haven't done anything with them. We haven't been able to finish games. If you look at the games, we were right there. But you have to have more runs when the last ball is caught and we haven't done that.''
TURNING POINT
The Red Sox had their chances, again and again, and couldn't cash in. But their best opportunity -- and thus their worst squander -- came in the eighth. Tommy Pham led with a single and took second with a wild pitch. A walk to Alex Verdugo followed, giving the Sox runners at first and second with one out. A forceout erased Verdugo at second, but Trevor Story then stole second, so the Sox had two in scoring position. A base hit would have put them ahead or a deep enough flyout would have tied it. Instead, J.D. Martinez hit a popup to shallow to right that wasn't sufficient to send Pham from third and Christian Arroyo hit into an inning-ending groundout at third.
TWO UP
Kiké Hernandez: Hernandez changed positions (from center to short) and spots in the batting order (from the bottom third to the leadoff spot), but made all the plays in the field and had two hits at the top of the lineup.
Tommy Pham: The Red Sox' table setters did their job. In addition to the two hits from Hernandez, Pham, dropped down the No. 2 spot in the order, also contributed two singles.
TWO DOWN
Rob Refsnyder: Refsnyder was 0-for-3 and twice struck out for the final out of the inning, both times leaving runners in scoring position.
J.D. Martinez; Returning to the lineup after missing a few games with lower back spasms, Martinez had some poor at-bats, stranding four baserunners while going 0-for-3 with a walk.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"Man at third, less than two out, 3-and-2 count, put the ball in play, one run. That's what they do.'' Alex Cora on Tampa Bay's approach.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* The Sox suffered a shutout for the first time in 89 games, going back to May 30.
* The Red Sox finished the season 1-9 at Tropicana Field, losing the last nine meetings in a row.
* The Sox hit .198 in the 10 games at the Trop this season.
* Trevor Story is now 13-for-13 in stolen base attempts.
* Boston was 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
UP NEXT: The Red Sox have an off-day on the schedule Thursday before beginning a three-game weekend series in Baltimore Friday. They'll start RHP Brayan Bello (1-4, 5.91) vs. RHP Austin Voth (4-2, 4.41)