BOSTON — The Tampa Bay Rays blew a three-run lead in the seventh inning at Fenway Park, falling 7-6 to the Boston Red Sox for their season-high-tying fourth straight defeat and eighth loss in their last 12 games.
Manager Kevin Cash pulled starter Ian Seymour after just 61 pitches in the fourth inning with a two-run lead, handing the ball to top setup man Kevin Kelly to try to lock down the win. But three relievers — Casey Legumina, Cole Sulser and Garrett Cleavinger — combined to allow four runs in the seventh, erasing what had been a 6-3 Rays advantage.
“Felt like we needed to do everything we could to win the game,” Cash said.
The collapse began when Andruw Monasterio hit a leadoff double to left off Legumina. Sulser entered and induced a chopper from Jarren Duran, but first baseman Ryan Vilade’s awkward, high toss to the bag allowed Duran to reach safely. “Just got to be better,” Vilade said. “Can’t give them free outs and need to make a better throw.” Ceddanne Rafaela then smashed an RBI double off the Green Monster to make it a one-run game before Cash brought in the left-handed Cleavinger to face Wilyer Abreu.
Cleavinger fell behind Abreu 3-0, then threw three straight fastballs. Abreu took the first two for called strikes and launched the third just over the bullpen in right-center field for a two-run homer — his fourth home run in less than 24 hours. “Didn’t do a great job executing, and he’s a really good hitter,” Cleavinger said. “They’re really hot right now, so you fall behind and it makes it real tough on yourself.” Despite the skid, Cleavinger expressed confidence: “Not ideal. But I think this group’s resilient, and we’ve shown it all year that we can come in and get outs and win ballgames. I think we’ll get back on track.”
Seymour, who surrendered a game-tying homer to Jahmai Jones and a solo shot to Abreu on a 2-1 fastball, took responsibility for putting the Rays in a hole. “Just wasn’t executing once I was ahead. Let them back into some counts, and then they made me pay,” Seymour said. “After a doubleheader, you’ve got to induce early contact. I put us in a hole and didn’t really give us a good chance to win this game, especially with the offense performing the way they did.”
Offense was not the problem. Chandler Simpson manufactured a run in the fourth, Victor Mesa Jr. homered, Richie Palacios doubled and scored on a single by Yandy Díaz, and Jonny DeLuca smashed a homer off reliever Ryan Watson in the seventh to push the lead to a three-run game. “We did some good things offensively. That was encouraging,” Cash said. “Hopefully, we can build off that.”
The Rays made it interesting in the ninth against All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman. With two outs, Palacios and Díaz walked, and pinch-runners Taylor Walls and Cedric Mullins moved into scoring position, but Chapman got DeLuca to ground out to seal Boston’s 12th straight win. “They’re obviously on a heater right now, so I feel like everything’s going their way,” DeLuca said. “Then obviously some things we need to fix and work on. But that’s the game. … We’re in good spirits. We feel good.”
The Rays close out their series at Fenway Park on Sunday looking to snap the skid before returning home to Tampa Bay.