BSJ Game Report: Rays 3, Red Sox 1 - Glasnow dominates as Tampa takes series from Boston

All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Rays, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Glasnow dominates as Boston falters again: Tyler Glasnow held the Red Sox to one run on three hits while striking out 14 to tie a career-high (22 swing-and-misses total), dominating as the Rays went on to win 3-1 in Wednesday's series finale at Tropicana Field. Tampa won two straight to take the series after Boston took Monday's opener. The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the third thanks to Connor Wong's RBI triple, but the Rays rattled off three unanswered runs, including the game-tying home run for Brandon Lowe in the bottom of the third, Tuesday's hero, as well as the go-ahead bomb for Isaac Paredes in the top of the fourth.

TURNING POINT

Bottom of the fourth: After Tampa tied it in the bottom of the second and Glasnow mowed through a 1-2-3 top of the fourth. Nick Pivetta should have gotten out of the inning with a called strike three on a fastball that caught the bottom right corner, but another missed call behind the dish in this series turned out to be costly. Paredes blasted a go-ahead homer on the very next pitch, which was a gut punch for Boston, given the state of the offense going up against a lights-out Glasnow. 

TWO UP

Ceddanne Rafaela: Entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Wilyer Abreu before moving to second in the field. Smacked a double with a 103.5 mph exit velocity in his lone plate appearance before making a nice play to corral a tough throw from Rafael Devers on a force-out at second. 

Mauricio Llovera: As one of the few arms available for Boston after Tuesday's extra-innings mess, Llovera did his job, eating innings in quality fashion. Threw three scoreless, one-hit innings with a strikeout and a walk in relief of Pivetta and Brennan Bernardino. Low-stress outing. 

TWO 'MEH'

Connor Wong: Had the RBI triple in the top of the third, but absolutely should have scored on Devers' hard groundout up the middle. Oslevis Basabe made a great play and went to first with the throw. Had Wong anticipated and not been as close to the bag, he would have scored.

Nick Pivetta: The deck was stacked against Pivetta on short rest with a team in need of a lot of innings. Still, he managed to be serviceable at the very least. The two homers were killers, and he ran out of gas at the end, but started strong. Went 4.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and a pair of walks.  

FIVE DOWN

Justin Turner and Adam Duvall: Total zeroes tonight at the plate, which was uncharacteristic for Turner especially. Both were 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Turner failed to capitalize on a chance to drive in Wong in the third, but froze on a curveball on the upper middle part of the zone to go down looking. 

Wilyer Abreu: More growing pains for the youngster. 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, going down twice with RISP. Might have been able to make a play to end the inning on Harold Ramirez's RBI double in the bottom of the fifth had he gone all out to the wall, but pulled up and let the double fall uncontested.

Enmanuel Valdez: Decent at the plate, going 1-for-2 and legging it out to score on Wong's triple, but was at the center of the fourth-inning rundown blunder. Had he just kept after Basabe, he would have gotten the out. Instead, made a bad throw to Nick Pivetta as Basabe easily made it back to second. 

Offense with RISP: Boston was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding five in total and four RISP with two outs. Boston had three cracks at driving in Wong in the third to no avail.

NOTABLE 

Glasnow struck out the side three times. In his last four starts against Boston, Glasnow has a 1.29 ERA over 21.0 innings with a 7/36 BB/K and a .169 opponent average. He had six strikeouts with his four-seamer tonight, five with his curve and three with his slider. 

First time since May of 2013 when an opposing pitcher had 14 strikeouts against the Red Sox (Yu Darvish). First time ever it’s happened in six innings or less against Boston. 

Triston Casas extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a one-out single in the top of the ninth, a rocket that first baseman Yandy Diaz couldn’t handle.

Devers' double in the first inning was his 395th career extra-base hit, the most in franchise history for a player age 26 or under (Mookie Betts: 394; Jim Rice: 370).

The Red Sox are now 16-18 since Aug. 1. They finish their six-game road trip at 6-6 with a .231 average, a minus-3 run differential. Starters had a 7.36 ERA, and the bullpen had a 4.28 marker.

Against the Rays this season, Boston is 2-9, hitting .204 with a mins-20 run differential. Starters have a 6.45 ERA, while the bullpen is at 3.95 

In 53 career games against the Sox, Lowe is hitting .320 with a 1.131 OPS to go along with nine doubles, 18 home runs and 43 RBI. 

QUOTE OF NOTE

"We're ready to go home," Alex Cora told reporters. "There was a lot of good stuff that happened here tonight, just showing up and grinding the way we did withw here we were at bullpen-wise. I know it sucks, you know, and there's no moral victories, but we feel good. We're going home now, and if we want to gain ground, we have a chance now. ... This week is going to be huge for us. Regardless of what people think, I'm very pleased with the way we played today."

UP NEXT

The Red Sox will be off tomorrow before opening up a seven-game homestand with a three-game set against the Baltimore Orioles, beginning Friday at 7:10 p.m. at Fenway Park. RHP Tanner Houck (4-8, 5.07 ERA) is scheduled to face LHP Cole Irvin (1-4, 4.91 ERA).