“Everything will be alright if, we just keep dancing like we’re… twenty two, twenty two.”
With a chance to secure their first non-losing series against an AL East opponent this season, the Red Sox showed plenty of fight against the Rays.
Boston fell behind 5-1 after an uncharacteristically rough start for Cooper Criswell, but the bats came to life to tie the game at four and set the stage for a dramatic finish in the ninth inning to earn what would have been a respectable series split.
Then Kenley Jansen happened.
The 36-year-old closer blew the game by following up an inning-opening strikeout with a walk, a single to put runners on the corners, then a tiebreaking RBI single to left for Isaac Paredes and a sac fly to Richie Palacios.
“Big at-bats, certainly off one of our game’s best in Kenley Jansen,” former Sox ’07 World Series champ and Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Felt like we went up there with probably an aggressive mindset, knowing that he’s going to look to get ahead with that cutter, and once he gets ahead he gets even nastier.”
Boston showed a little more fight in the ninth, with Rob Refsnyder working a two-out walk and Rafael Devers singling to put runners on the corners. But after a mix-up that saw Cash make one too many mound visits and having to make a two-out pitching chance, the Sox’s rally fell short as Romy Gonzalez —the hero of Tuesday’s 5-4 walk-off win to tie the series — grounded out to the pitcher to end the game.
Boston fell to 1-6 against teams in its division this season after being swept in three games by Baltimore earlier this season. But it wasn’t all for naught, at least in the eyes of surging Sox leadoff hitter Jarren Duran…
“It’s tough, but we’ve got to pick out the good things,” Duran said. “We fought back hard, like they punched us, we punched back, they punched us, we punched back. It’s just baseball, you know, they just scrapped it out more than us tonight, but I like where we’re at.”
Where the Red Sox are at is, in the words of Taylor Swift, a thoroughly mediocre 22-22. Seven and a half games behind the Yankees for fourth place in the AL East, and two and a half games behind the final AL wild-card spot.
My esteemed colleague Ken Powtak put it well this week: “It’s early… but not that early.” We’re more than a quarter of the way through the regular season, nearly a third of the way done, and it’s missed opportunities like these that add up in the long run…
What went wrong
Cooper Criswell’s revenge game didn’t go as planned.
The Sox had yet to lose when the former Rays’ arm started, until Thursday. Criswell struggled to the tune of a season-high five runs allowed (three earned) on four hits and two walks with a trio of strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
The right-hander also gave up a home run — a solo shot to Josh Lowe to make it 3-1 in the third — but ultimately didn’t bury the team for good as Boston’s bats battled back to tie it by the sixth.
“Frustrating, more so just wish I would’ve gave the team a better chance to win,” Criswell said. “Obviously, being the former team, wanted to go out there and throw well.”
Criswell has been trending downward of late, having allowed eight runs in 9 1/3 in his last 15 innings. Is that indicative of the rest of the league figuring out the Andrew Bailey plan, or just a function of the ups and downs of a long season? We’ll know more next Tuesday when he’ll be in line to see the Rays again as the Sox head to Tampa.
Obviously, Jansen was less than sharp as well. It was a mixed series for the aging closer, who logged a scoreless one-inning appearance during Tuesday’s extra-innings win. It seemed to be more of a blip on the radar as Jansen had only allowed a run in one of his previous five May outings.
Vaughn Grissom continued to struggle, going 1 for 4 to see his season average drop to .146. Ceddanne Rafaela also logged another hitless game (0 for 4) and is hitting .201. Wilyer Abreu went 0 for 5 with a strikeout, but he’s still batting .271.
What went right
Jarren Duran, that’s what...
Duran had a three-hit day, his fourth such game this season, with a pair of doubles and a game-tying solo home run in the sixth. The speedy outfielder finished the series strong after another two-double day in a 2 for 3 showing in Wednesday’s 4-3 loss.
“I was just getting the right pitches I was looking for. I just stayed with the plan and felt pretty good,” said Duran, whose average rose to .272 on the season. “Just trying to put some quality at-bats.”
Duran’s average has risen 15 points since dipping to .257 on May 4th. He wasn’t the only Sox hitter to have a good day, or series, at the office, as Devers put up a 2 for 4 night and blasted a second-inning homer — his second in as many days, tying Nomar Garciaparra for 12th on the team’s all-time home run list (178) in the process.
Devers’ performance also extended his hitting streak to six games, during which he’s batting .320.
Boston’s offense averaged four runs per game during the four-game set with Tampa Bay. It’s a marked improvement from their dry stretch during a 3-6 stretch prior during which they pushed across just 2.5 per game.
Sox catchers have also had a good run of late, throwing out eight of 12 runners over their last six games. For comparison, Boston’s backstops had gunned down only three of 31 base stealers over the first 38 games of the year.
What’s ahead
We’re moving on to St. Louis, where a last-place 18-25 Cardinals team — and a chance to re-establish some momentum against an inferior team — awaits. St. Louis had been playing better baseball, though, with a season-high-tying three-game win streak (on the heels of a season-high, seven-game skid) before a Wednesday loss to the Angels.
Brayan Bello will be first up on the mound as he makes his second start back from the injured list opposite Cards right-hander Kyle Gibson on Friday night. After that, Boston has Kutter Crawford slated for Saturday’s game and Nick Pivetta in line to close out the series Sunday.
That precedes the Sox’s first trip to Tampa of the season for three games on Monday through Wednesday, and then a three-game weekend home set against another NL Central team — the division-leading Brewers.
It would certainly behoove the Red Sox to clean house during their stay in St. Louis. Even with a series victory, it’s conceivable Boston could be on the wrong side of .500 once this nine-game stretch concludes.
Here’s hoping the Sox can recapture some of that 2004 and 2013 magic…
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.