FINAL: Minnesota Twins 4, Red Sox 2 (12) - Sox Sloppy Offense Leads to Hurtful Loss

The Red Sox (76-78) are handed a crucial loss to the Minnesota Twins (81-73) in extra innings, losing 4-2.

The Boston offense looked good to start, with the first score of the game coming in the fourth, when Trevor Story singled home Tyler O'Neill. The Sox would get a hit in every inning after that, but weren't able to capitalize on their opportunities. They would score their second and final run of the game in the twelfth, where Connor Wong grounded out to short, allowing Triston Casas to score. The Sox batters struck out twenty times tonight, tying the single game franchise record for total strikeouts. Seven of the nine starters struck out two or more times, with O'Neill going down four times.

Richard Fitts looked great once again, throwing five innings, allowing five hits but no runs, and striking out three. Luis Guerrero would replace him in the sixth, where get gave up two hits but got out of the inning. Chris Martin was credited with a blown save in the seventh, allowing the tying run to score on a fielder's choice. Lucas Sims came in for the eighth, striking out one, and Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth, getting the Twins down in order. Josh Winckowski pitched a perfect tenth, and Greg Weissert struck out two in the eleventh. Cooper Criswell would get the loss in this one, allowing three runs on three hits in the twelfth.

My Player of the Game: Trevor Story - He went 2-4 tonight, with an RBI and two walks. He also only struck out twice.

Game two of the series is scheduled for a 4:10 first pitch tomorrow afternoon. Probable pitchers are Pablo Lopez (15-8, 3.84 ERA) and Kutter Crawford (8-15, 4.19 ERA)
                                                                                                                                                                                                               _____________________________________

WHO: Minnesota Twins (80-73) at Red Sox (76-77)
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: 0-3
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP David Festa (2-6, 5.07 ERA) vs. RHP Richard Fitts (0-0, 0 ERA)
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

LIVE BOX

LINEUPS

RED SOX

Jarren Duran LF
Rafael Devers 3B
Tyler O'Neill DH
Triston Casas 1B
Wilyer Abreu RF
Connor Wong C
Trevor Story SS
Enmanuel Valdez 2B
Ceddanne Rafaela CF

SP Richard Fitts

OPPONENT

Byron Buxton CF
Trevor Larnach LF
Carlos Correa SS
Matt Wallner RF
Royce Lewis DH
Willi Castro 2B
Jose Miranda 3B
Carlos Santana 1B
Christian Vazquez C

SP David Festa

WHAT'S UP

The Red Sox went 2-5 on their 7-game road trip to NYY (1-3) and TB (1-2). The Sox are 7-13 in their last 20 games, 15-25 in their last 40, and 22-35 in 57 games since the All-Star break. Boston is 1 game below .500 (76-77, .497)...The only day this season that the Sox fell to 2 games below .500 was 5/18 (22-24).

Of Boston's final 12 games from 9/17-29, the 3-game set vs. MIN beginning tonight is their only series against a team with a winning record (TB-6 games, TOR-3). The Sox are 35-55 (.389) against teams who currently own a record of .500 or better. Boston is 41-22 (.651) against teams that are currently below .500, MLB's 5th-best record.

Tonight's starter, Richard Fitts, is making his 3rd career start...He's allowed just 2 unearned runs in 10.2 innings over his first 2. Fitts is just the 4th pitcher in Red Sox history to throw 5.0+ innings and allow 0 ER in each of their first 2 MLB outings, joining Tanner Houck (2020), Vaughn Eshelman (1995), and Dave Ferriss (1945). No pitcher in franchise history has ever done so in their first 3 career games...The only ML pitcher since at least 1901 to do so was CIN's Andrew Abbott in 2023.

BOS has posted a 3.21 ERA (31 ER/87.0 IP) in its last 10 games, allowing 3 runs or fewer in 6 of those games. It marks the club's lowest ERA over a 10-game span since 5/4-15 (3.10 ERA).

Red Sox pitchers have recorded 10+ SO in each of the last 4 games (43 total SO), their 2nd longest streak of the season behind a 5-game run from 3/29-4/2. They've struck out 10+ batters in 6 of their last 9 games after doing so in just 5 of their previous 31. Boston has recorded 92 strikeouts in its last 10 games, the club's most in a 10-game span since 6/30-7/11 (93 SO).