The Boston Red Sox, surprisingly, kept something of a pace with the Atlanta Braves, the best team in baseball, during their two series in May. Boston claimed a win in each series and lost two games by one run.
The Red Sox and Braves each scored two runs in the fourth inning following great showings from Payton Tolle and Chris Sale — the teams seemed lined up for another close game at Fenway Park. Until Tolle left the game.
Danny Coulombe entered in the sixth inning and promptly loaded the bases on a single to Michael Harris II and two walks. Since there were many runners on base, Boston turned to Greg Weissert to try and save the day. The righty proceeded to walk in a run, then let up a grand slam to Ronald Acuña Jr. on a 93 mile per hour pitch down the middle in a 1-0 count.
Acuña's four runs put the game out of reach for the Red Sox, demoralizing them enough that they didn't score another run for the rest of the game. The 10-2 loss felt especially brutal given Weissert's recent history.
Red Sox turn to Greg Weissert with bases loaded before he gave up the easiest grand slam of Ronald Acuña Jr.'s life
GRAND SLAM OVER THE GREEN MONSTER FOR RONALD ACŨNA JR. 💥 pic.twitter.com/3PuU8pNy7N
— MLB (@MLB) May 28, 2026
Weissert has seemingly grown into the Sox's go-to guy with runners on base, despite his tendency to let them score. He's inherited 21 runners over his 24 appearances this season and 12 of them have scored. Turning to Weissert with runners on base feels like giving up, at this point, and his free grand slam to Acuña confirmed it.
Weissert was one of the most trusted arms in Boston's bullpen for the last two seasons, with a combined 2.97 ERA and 1.251 WHIP over 130.1 innings. He's struggled ever since his stellar performance for Team Italy at the World Baseball Classic in the spring (remember that?) and now has a 4.43 ERA and 1.43 WHIP with 21 strikeouts ad eight walks over 22.1 strikeouts.
The sixth inning would've been uncharacteristically early in the game for Garrett Whitlock to pitch, but the Red Sox are already feeling his loss to the injured list. After the game, skipper Chad Tracy said he wanted to turn to a righty in that moment and he'd already used Tyron Guerrero and Coulombe. Ryan Watson also wouldn't have been a good answer (he gave up a ninth-inning homer to Ozzie Albies later in the game).
The Red Sox have recently been getting solid offense (32 hits in the series), but they haven't been able to pull a full game together. Weissert's grand slam to Acuña is the latest preventable disaster that's led to a Boston loss.
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