All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 6-2 loss to the Marlins, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
The Red Sox have dipped below the .500 mark dropping their second straight game to the Marlins 6-2. Boston's loss drops the last-place Sox to 40-41 through 81 games. The offense was unable to generate any offense against the Marlins stingy pitching coupled with a sixth-inning wild pitch and sloppy defense ended up hammering the nail in the Sox coffin.
The slumping Sox opted for a bullpen game on Wednesday night as Alex Cora handed the ball to Kaleb Ort. The righty made his second start of the season and he pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. He surrendered a 404-foot solo homer to Garrett Cooper that just snuck over the home run line on the Green Monster in the second inning. The homer was the fifth by Ort in 19 2/3 innings and he now has given up nine home runs in 48 1/3 innings in his career.
Cooper's blast was his 10th of the season, the red-hot Marlins' first baseman has driven in eight RBI in his last seven games, this includes three in this series.
Ort tossed two innings giving up one hit, one earned run, walking no one while striking out one batter. He tossed 24 pitches, 17 of them for strikes.
TURNING POINT
Following a one-hour and 13-minute rain delay, the game resumed in the sixth inning with Josh Winckowski relieving Nick Pivetta. The Marlins snapped a tie game, thanks to a wild pitch from Winckowski and a fielding miscue from David Hamilton. Jean Segura slapped a chopper up the middle that Hamilton had to make a running play to scoop and throw, instead the ball kicked off his glove allowing two runs to score.
Jean Segura with a couple of RBI's and the @Marlins lead 4-1! pic.twitter.com/yESGxEDbpd
— Marlins Radio (@MarlinsRadio) June 29, 2023
UP
With one swing in the fourth inning, Rafael Devers crushed a 76.9 mph curveball off Marlins’ left-hander Braxton Garrett. Devers’ 422-foot blast sailed over the Sox bullpen for his 19th homer of the season and in the process tied the game 1-1. It was Devers' sixth long ball in the last 17 games.
Sent HR number 19 to the bleachers. pic.twitter.com/kzdERHgDwn
— NESN (@NESN) June 29, 2023
Pivetta was a bright spot out of the bullpen and dazzled again. The right-hander tossed 3 1/3 innings giving up just one hit, two runs, two walks while striking out seven. Despite his strong performance out the bullpen of late, Cora has no plans of putting the 30-year-old back in the starting rotation.
"He's found his stuff back there, where we at right now as a team, that's the role that we need from him," said Cora about Pivetta. "Roster-wise and where we're at, we need him back there. We have Kutter as a starter, we're missing him, we have [Chris] Murphy and Winck, he's becoming a dude back there. His fastball is playing, his slider is good and right now we're very comfortable with him."
DOWN
Over the last six games, the Sox have scored just 11 runs, this includes one run in each of the last three. They now have lost four straight games which matches a season-long losing streak (5/21-24).
NOTABLE
Garrett was impressive for the Marlins holding the punchless Sox offense to just three hits and one earned run. The southpaw walked only one batter while striking out two. He's now held opposing lineups to one run or zero earned runs in 10 starts this season and has held opponents to two runs or less in eight of his last nine appearances.
ONE MORE WITH THE FISH
The Sox will wrap this quick three-game series on Thursday with Brayan Bello (5-4, 3.27 ERA) on the mound. Bello earned his fifth win of the season last weekend in Chicago. He was brilliant over 6 2/3 innings only allowing one run while striking out five. The Marlins will counter with lefty Jesus Luzardo, the righty has been strong this season striking out 103 batters in his first 16 starts this season. This will be Luzardo's first career start against the Red Sox.