Red Sox 3, Rays 9: Ok But They Maybe Could’ve Won This One...

False Dawn #1

Standing at the precipice of baseball history, one Rob Refsnyder shakes off the gloomy tweets, stares down a man projected to be one of the best starters on one of the best starting rotations in baseball, and says: not today!

A no-doubter by an unlikely three-hole hitter! Surely Jeffrey Spings will not recover from such an undignified punch in the mouth! Surely the Rays are shook! Surely this will end the streak once and for al — oh, nuts, never mind. Springs would recover to retire the next 7 hitters in a row, striking out three of them. Of freaking course he would.

False Dawn #2

But wait! Springs is hurt! Springs is hurt!

Oh boy, the Rays sure are screwed now! They’re going to the bullpen early and Cleavinger doesn’t look ready! There’s a double! There’s not one but two walks! An RBI fielder’s choice!

And one inning later, another double and another RBI!

The Rays bullpen is leaking! It’s overworked after facing a resilient Sox lineup all week! The Rays’ luck has finally ru—oh, nuts. Never mind. Some guy named Braden Bristo (which, we all can agree is not a real person but a character from a Thomas Pynchon novel, right?), a [checks notes] 28-year-old making his Major League debut (!!) would come in and throw a three-inning no-hitter while striking out 4 to shut down the Red Sox offense. Of freaking course he would.

False Dawn #3

Corey Kluber’s cruising! In four solid innings he’s limited the walks, made just one mistake, and he’s even striking people out like it’s 2018!

The Klubot’s back, baby! The Ray’s don’t know what hit ‘em! They don’t have a chance! Surely they won’t be able to hit they’re way back into this ga—oh, nuts. Never mind. They would go on to score seven runs in the fifth inning, mostly thanks to a series of BABIP God-induced bleeders and seeing-eye grounders and Richard Bleier would be totally incapable of stopping the bleeding. Of freaking course they would.

Three Studs

1. Justin Turner: .209 WPA, 2-4, 2B, RBI
2. Rob Refsnyder: .071 WPA, 1-3, HR, RBI
3. Christian Arroyo: .015 WPA, 1-3, 2B R

Three Duds

1. Richard Bleier: -.569 WPA, 0.1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER
2. Reese McGuire: -.061 WPA, 0-4, 3 K
3. Corey Kluber: -.045 WPA, 4.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

Play of the Game

In the middle of the Rays 7-run 5th, Brandon Lowe hit a measly little grounder up the the middle that scored one run to tie the game and gave the Tampa Bay Rays a 56% chance of winning. They would not blow that chance.

That was the most important play by WPA, anyway. The most important play to an editor of a Red Sox website that spent October through April positioning itself as the internet’s #1 Triston Casas fanzine was when our boy worked a 14-pitch walk and then bat flipped his way to first: