Red Sox Pre-Cap Podcast: Reviewing the Rays, Previewing the White Sox

Welcome back to another edition of the Red Sox Pre-Cap Podcast, your spot on the Over the Monster Podcast Network to hear the latest from the most recent series on the Red Sox schedule as well as a preview for the next set of games on the docket. For this episode, we review this week’s three-game series at Fenway against the Rays and look ahead to the weekend series in Chicago against the White Sox.

Things were looking up very early on in this series, as Boston had Chris Sale on the mound in Game One and were able to take an early 7-1 lead. But then everything went downhill quickly. Sale gave up more contact than you’d like to see. leading to a lot of hits and giving the defense more and more chances to fail, which they took him up on. The team collapsed in spectacular fashion, with Alex Verdugo serving as the face of the defensive miscues. Tampa Bay ultimately won that game 11-10 in extras.

Moving on to the second game, the Red Sox were looking to put the collapse in the rearview and move forward, but instead got off on the complete wrong foot on Tuesday. Eduardo Rodriguez was on the mound and he really struggled in this one. It seems like it’s been one step forward, two steps back with him all season, and this was certainly stepping backwards. He gave up a couple of home runs and only made it through 3 ²⁄₃ innings. The game was out of hand early, and while there was some late offense from the Red Sox — including a pair of homers from Bobby Dalbec — it was a 12-7 loss.

That left Wednesday as the only thing standing between the Rays and a sweep, but Hunter Renfroe had other ideas. Well, first it was Nathan Eovaldi, who was absolutely spectacular for Boston in this series finale. He’s been their most consistent starter all year, and this was about as good as we’ve seen him in 2021. The righty struck out eight in seven scoreless frames. But the offense couldn’t get anything on the board despite consistently hard contact all night, and the Rays actually scored first, taking a 1-0 lead in the eighth. But then Renfroe happened. He hit a two-run bomb in the bottom of the eighth, and then for good measure ended the game on an outfield assist to third base for the win.

The Red Sox now head out to Chicago for a three-game set against the White Sox starting on Friday. We hope you enjoyed today’s show. If so, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave us a rating and a review.