Red Sox fall 12-8 to Rays in series finale

After the Red Sox had a 5-1 lead in the second inning, David Price was unable to deliver against his former team.

The Red Sox went on and had an early lead in David Price gave up 8 ER for the second time in his career and it came in a start against his former team, the Tamba Bay Rays.

Price struggled in the first inning by giving up a home run to Evan Longoria and walk to Steve Pearce, but the Red Sox jumped to an early lead in the first inning. Dustin Pedroia hit his first home run of the season in the following a single from Mookie Betts. Xander Bogaerts continued with the hitting spree with a double and scored after a single from Hanley Ramirez. The Red Sox ended that inning with a 5-1 lead.

Longoria cut the Red Sox lead to 5-2 in the top half of the third by hitting his second home run of the game, but Price managed to finish the inning without more damage. However, he allowed six earned runs in the fourth inning thanks to a home run from Curt Casali and a couple of doubles from Longoria and Desmond Jennings. Price was quickly replaced by Matt Barnes, who got the last out of the inning. 

Betts hit a two-run home run in the bottom half of the sixth and cut the Rays’ lead to 8-7. The Red Sox rallied in the next inning and managed to tie the game thanks to doubles from David Ortiz and Travis Shaw, but the Rays regained the lead in the top half of the eighth after a walk from Pearce and a double from Steven Souza Jr. The Red Sox were unable to tie the game and gave up three more runs in the ninth.

Game notes:

• Jackie Bradley Jr. went 0-4 with three strikeouts, one coming with the bases loaded in the 7th inning.
• Price now has a 7.06 ERA, but this is no reason to panic. According to ESPN, Price’s career ERA in April is 4.14, but in the rest of the year without including postseason is 2.96
• The Red Sox entered this game leading both leagues with a 10.4 K/9.
• Pedroia hit his 1,500th career double today.

There is no reason to panic after this outing, but Price was the main reason why the Red Sox lost this game. I am confident that May will be a better month for him, but today was the worst start of his career and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Similar to what happened with Joe Kelly in the first game of the series, the bullpen had to step up and finish this game strongly enough to earn the win. Both Cuevas and Noe Ramirez gave up two runs each, but considering that the bullpen pitched 5.1 innings, there’s no reason to blame them for their poor performance.

The offense went on to a hot start in the first inning by scoring five runs, which is usually more than what you need to win the game when Price is pitching. They continued to fight until the last out but leaving the bases loaded in the 7th inning is also one of the reasons why they lost this game. The Red Sox are now 1-9 with the bases loaded for the season, the only hit being Brock Holt‘s grand slam in the first series against Toronto.