On Wednesday, the Red Sox lost an 11-inning game on a two-out error. On Thursday, they sent out a getaway day B-squad and still only lost because every damn line drive seemed to perfectly seek out a Tampa Bay glove.
On Friday night, they just plain got beat. Steven Wright got crushed in the first, the Red Sox pulled their usual infuriating disappearing act when they had men on base, and for the third straight game they went in the loss column. This time, though, the Jays won't be joining them.
Wright had five good innings for the Red Sox. Unfortunately, they started in the second. The first? It saw Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon put up a pair of bombs to leave Boston in a 5-0 hole.
When that happens to a starting pitcher, the game should pretty much be over, but there was at least a little more to this one thanks to Wright locking in for the rest of his outing. But as has been the story with so many of their other losses, the Red Sox managed to perfectly spread what fight was left in them out so as to make as little of it as possible.
That may not literally be true, but it's about as close as you're ever going to come. The Red Sox managed to put a remarkable 17 men on base and somehow still score only three runs. Can you even fathom that? Three hits and a walk were only good for one run in response to the top of the first, with Sandy Leon and Jackie Bradley Jr. striking out back-to-back to leave the bases loaded. The third saw the Red Sox put two men in scoring position right off the bat before the same due went down swinging, this time without even one coming home.
The Sox finally managed to bring a second run in come the sixth, with Dustin Pedroia picking up an RBI single to score Brock Holt from second. But the seventh immediately saw the waste return as Mookie Betts got himself picked off first after a leadoff single. The eighth saw the Royals tack on a third run as Lorenzo Cain homered off Junichi Tazawa who remains complete and utter toast, but the extra run hardly mattered given that, thanks to a double play from David Ortiz, the Red Sox managed to score all of one run in the ninth despite picking up four hits in the inning.
With three straight losses, the Red Sox have not only missed their chance to take an actual lead in the A.L. East, but managed to fall to second as the Jays finally pulled off a win against the Twins. And somehow they didn't even manage to make things particularly close on a night where they produced 14 hits. Just a stunning performance, and not in a good way.