Red Sox waste Suarez's strong start as bullpen can't hold late lead

DENVER -- The Red Sox did almost everything right in Wednesday’s rubber match at Coors Field, putting timely hitting together with a solid starting pitching performance to set up a reliable bullpen.

But as Caleb Durbin said, “it’s a thin line between winning and losing,” and the Red Sox, despite leading for six innings, could not put enough together to cross that line and earn a win as they fell 8-6 to the Rockies, losing the series in the process and ending their road trip on a sour note.

Ranger Suarez gave Boston another solid start in a series featuring dominating performances from the starting rotation, despite two losses. Suarez pitched six innings and allowed three runs – two earned – on seven hits and a walk while striking out nine, leaving with a 6-3 lead.

“I'm more concerned with the team and us not being able to accomplish what we wanted to,” Suarez said through team interpreter and manager of baseball communications and media relations Daveson Perez, downplaying his own quality start. “You always feel good when you leave the game with a lead, and overall, we have tremendous talent in our bullpen. Unfortunately, it didn't happen for us tonight.”

The Boston bullpen did not fare as well as the starter Wednesday, blowing the lead in an inning exacerbated by an uncharacteristic defensive lapse. Reliever Tyron Guerrero allowed three unearned runs on two hits and a hit batsman in the seventh, and Danny Coulombe allowed one hit before finishing the frame with the game tied.

“Today was fairly crazy,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “We didn't play good enough defensively. It's really that simple.”

The Red Sox had the chance to kill the seventh-inning rally before it started, with two outs and the hit batter on first when Hunter Goodman grounded to short, where Marcelo Mayer made a costly error, dropping the fielded ball on the exchange before he could get a throw off. That set up three Rockies runs on three successive singles.

“I couldn't get the ball out of my glove,” Mayer said. “That can't … happen. “Just a brutal error that cost us the game. To me, it's the most routine ground ball I could possibly get. This game's 100% on me.”

Much as he may have wanted to, Tracy couldn’t argue with Mayer’s assessment.

“We're out of the inning [if we make that play],” Tracy said. “You'd like to see how it plays out after that with a three-run lead going to the back part [of our bullpen], but they end up tied, and now we're fighting like crazy just to keep the game tied and see if we can get a lead back. You want to see innings get put down, but we have to play defense too.”

Justin Slaten came on in the eighth and gave up a pair of singles before Tyler Freeman bunted down the first-base line to plate the go-ahead run. Slaten gave up another single to TJ Rumfield and an RBI double to rookie Cole Carrigg as the Rockies took an 8-6 lead to the ninth.

Boston’s offense showed considerable signs of life, led by Ceddanne Rafaela, who set the tone with a first-inning triple. Rafaela popped a fly to shallow right, and with three Rockies converging on the fly, the ball popped out of second baseman Willi Castro’s glove. Rafaela was able to pull into third safely with what was initially ruled an error but quickly changed to a triple.

Rafaela ended up going 3-for-5 on the day, adding a third-inning double and a fourth-inning RBI single, before striking out in his last two at bats and finishing a homer shy of a cycle.

Connor Wong hit his first home run since Sept. 8, 2024, in the second inning, and Andruw Monasterio homered in a two-run fourth. Boston’s last run came in the fifth, with Anthony Siegler plating Mayer, who doubled in his first at-bat after entering the game when Durbin left with a finger injury.

“We did such a good job to get to where we were in the game,” Mayer said. “We put together really good at-bats, Guerrero did his job to get out of the inning, and I just mess it up.”

The Red Sox finished the road trip 3-3 and are 20-21 on the road this season.

“It could have been 6-0, so that's where it's frustrating,” Durbin said. “We need to find a way to win those close games.”