Red Sox 4, Mets 5: Sweep eludes Red Sox yet again

For one inning, the Red Sox were in position to complete their third sweep of the season (only their second of three games or more). That was it. Wade Miley struggled in a three-run sixth, and Robbie Ross gave up the deciding run in the seventh in a 5-4 loss to New York.

The first five innings of the game looked a lot like the first two games of the series. Wade Miley was up to the task of going toe-to-toe with the New York ace-of-the-day--in this case ace-in-training Noah Syndergaard--trading mostly zeroes. The second inning proved the exception, with Miley almost escaping a couple leadoff singles by getting some good luck on balls hit directly to Brock Holt and Xander Bogaerts before none other than Syndergaard himself got the job done with a third hit to make it 1-0.

It was an ugly inning with plenty of contact, and when the pitcher gets a hit that's always a bad sign. But Miley got back in rhythm with a 1-2-3 third, worked around a leadoff single in the fourth, and suffered only a swinging bunt single from Curtis Granderson in the fifth. It was, to that point, a pretty exemplary start for the lefty.

And, in the top of the sixth, after five innings of futility, the Red Sox finally gave him the backup that might have turned that start into a win. After two quick outs to start the frame, Xander Bogaerts managed to get a ground ball into right field to bring David Ortiz to the plate with a runner on. Syndergaard fell behind 3-1 to Ortiz, then tried to bury a fastball in the bottom of the zone. He more-or-less succeeded, but it was just high enough for Ortiz, and right out over the heart of the plate. 391 feet later, it was homer 494 and a 2-1 lead.

But that was the one inning the Red Sox had. Or, rather, the half-inning. The out, even. In the bottom of the sixth, Miley fell apart, surrendering a single and a walk to set up Juan Uribe for a two-run double before he'd managed even a single out. It was kind of like what might have happened in the second inning with a little less luck. Anthony Recker produced a fourth run for New York before Syndergaard and Juan Lagares finally gave Miley his final two outs,

The Sox did manage to even the game up right away, with Blake Swihart, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Mookie Betts getting the job done on offense, Bradley doubling home Swihart and Betts hitting a fly ball into no-mans-land down the left field line, turning it into a triple when Michael Cuddyer failed to scoop the ball up on his first pass. But Betts was stranded on third as the go-ahead run, and Daniel Murphy--taking David Wright's place at first on a fielder's choice after Wright drew a walk off Robbie Ross--stole second and scored on a two-out single from Cuddyer to put the Mets ahead once and for all.