Sox squander offensive opportunities, settle for series win in Seattle

SEATTLE -- Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy gave the baseball gods their due multiple times over the course of the club’s three-game series in Seattle, when Boston won two games in which it manufactured key rallies late to pull away.

“The game gives back to you,” was his preferred way of putting it.

On Sunday, in a 3-1 loss to the Mariners, the little things didn’t go the Sox’s way, as Boston missed opportunities to go ahead, then to pull even in four straight frames, ultimately missing a chance for its third sweep of the season.

“Obviously it was good to come in here and win the first two games. But obviously, we wanted to try to finish the sweep today,” right fielder Nate Eaton said. “We just didn’t execute when we had guys in scoring position.”

The Red Sox went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position -- after going 5-for-14 in the first two games of the set -- and left four men on base.

But the big reason those two numbers were so low was because of the three frames in a row in which the Sox lost a runner on the bases.

In the top of the fourth, Mickey Gasper drew a leadoff walk, but was wiped out when Willson Contreras grounded into a double play. In the next frame, Caleb Durbin parachuted a leadoff single into left field, but was picked off two pitches into the next at-bat by Logan Gilbert, who struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball.

And in the sixth, Eaton drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a wild pitch, but was doubled off to end the inning after Seattle’s Dominic Canzone made a diving play in right to catch a sinking line drive off the bat of Ceddanne Rafaela.

“I knew there was one out, and I knew right there [with] a pitcher on the mound who was throwing the way he was, we had to take our chances,” Eaton said. “I read low line drive and figured I had to get a good jump to be able to score.”

“It gets magnified when you’re facing Gilbert and you’re not going to get a ton of chances,” Tracy said. “If that ball drops, maybe Nate’s in there and we’ve got something going.”

As it happened, the Red Sox would get one more chance to get something going once Gilbert left the game in the seventh, but Andruw Monasterio struck out with runners on second and third.

The missed opportunities landed Payton Tolle with the loss despite the left-hander posting his first quality start in three outings. Tolle only struck out two and walked a pair -- both in the fourth -- but induced two double plays of his own to work around trouble and limit damage.

“I thought the first three [innings] were good, attacking the zone,” Tolle said. “The last three, a lot of traffic, started to spray a little bit. But I thought we kept competing. Gave up the one home run, but other than that, it was just a bunch of stuff that just got through. That’s part of baseball.”

Through 11 starts, Tolle has posted relatively significant reverse splits, with lefties hitting .247 with a .728 OPS in 73 at-bats against him, whereas righties are hitting .205 with a .578 OPS in 166 at-bats.

That trend continued against a lefty-heavy Mariners lineup. In fairness, one of the three hits Seattle left-handers logged against him was a bunt single. On the other hand, one was a laser off the bat of Canzone that skipped off the top of the wall for a home run -- the fourth homer Tolle has allowed to a left-handed hitter, compared to just two for righties.

“I think I’m leaving a lot of stuff over the middle for lefties,” Tolle said. “But that’s something I’ll keep looking at, just trying to make them more uncomfortable each time.”

Eaton provided Boston’s only run in the top of the third, answering Canzone’s homer with one of his own -- his first hit of the season, as well -- drilling a 1-1 fastball a Statcast-projected 409 feet into the second deck in left field.

The 29-year-old was starting for the second straight game, with Tracy using him as a way to give each of his outfielders a day off on a West Coast swing that serves as the middle of a span of 16 games in 16 days for the Sox. On Saturday, he started in center field for Rafaela; on Sunday he was in right with Wilyer Abreu getting the day off.