'It's been a minute': Sox tripped up late in first series loss since July 1

BOSTON -- A 10th straight series win in their grasp, the Red Sox let it slip away when their two most dominant relievers faltered in the late innings in a 4-3 loss to the Athletics on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.

Instead, the Sox have lost a series for the first time since the Nationals took two out of three from them June 29-July 1.

“It’s been a minute,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “I think I said this comment when the [15-game] winning streak ended. I was like, ‘We knew that was going to happen eventually,’ and I think in this case, you probably knew this was going to happen eventually. You're not going to win every single series the rest of the year.”

For the second straight day, Boston was on the cusp of a dramatic comeback in the bottom of the ninth, only to have it fall just short. With two on and two outs, Ceddanne Rafaela smoked a 101.8 mph liner that left fielder Jeff McNeil caught at the tip of his glove on the edge of the warning track.

This also marks the first losing streak for the Sox since that series against the Nationals.

“We gave ourselves a shot both days. Played a good game, even yesterday [in a 7-3 loss], got the game with the [potential] tying run at the plate, and we just lost them,” Tracy said. “So you move on, tip your cap and move on to Toronto.”

Up 3-2 with four outs to get, Garrett Whitlock allowed a game-tying RBI double to Jonah Heim.

In the ninth, Aroldis Chapman was one out from putting his team in the dugout with the game still tied. But Max Muncy had other ideas, smacking a go-ahead RBI double off the Green Monster in left-center.

The nine straight series wins, which started with a sweep against the Angels in Anaheim from July 3-5, put the Sox just two away from tying the franchise record set by the 1912 team.

1. Bullpen game worked for seven innings

By design, the Sox went with a bullpen game on Sunday, mindful of the fact they want to get some of their starting pitchers an extra day of rest heading down the stretch. Earlier in the year, the Red Sox were having a hard time winning games in which they used an opener, because the opener typically put the team in a hole in the first inning. But this time, Tracy had the flexibility to use recently acquired lefty Erik Miller in that role, which he had been solid in for the Giants.

Though Miller did allow one run due to his own throwing error, it was unearned. And he put the Sox in a relatively good spot when bulk reliever Brayan Bello again proved to be dominant out of the bullpen. Over four innings, Bello allowed three hits and one run, walking none and striking out four. Everything was going to script until Whitlock and Chapman had their hiccups in the eighth and ninth.

Whitlock’s biggest second guess was throwing his sinker instead of a slider or a changeup.

And Chapman?

“They took good at-bats, and they fouled off good pitches. And that was the result,” Chapman said.

2. Small ball again becomes big

One of the many trademarks of the Red Sox during their summer surge? The ability to manufacture runs with the help of some old-school small ball.

Latest case in point? Sunday’s bottom of the fifth, an inning that started with Boston trailing, 2-1. Eli White put down a bunt single to open the inning. Jake Rogers followed with a hit-and-run single and the speedy White roared to third.

Up next was Nick Sogard, who dropped down a bunt, and the throw to the plate by pitcher J.T. Ginn was wide, allowing White to score what was ruled a fielder’s-choice sacrifice bunt. Wilyer Abreu did his job, lofting a sacrifice fly to right to give the Red Sox their first lead of the day.

Unfortunately the Sox didn’t do much else, generating six hits on the day.

“The small-ball rally was awesome,” Tracy said. “Just found a way to play baseball in the fifth and get the lead and get the ball to that back-end group. There are going to be periods where you're not going to score 10 runs and hit home runs. And we still today, even despite that, found a way to push runs across, which was good."

3. White subs for Masa, belts three hits

When the Red Sox acquired White from the Braves on Monday, the general expectation is that he would make most of his starts against lefties. But with Mastaka Yoshida ill and Caleb Durbin getting a rare day off, Abreu slid to DH and White made the start in right.

That worked out fortuitously for the Sox, as White came through with a three-hit game, his first three knocks for his new team. In fact, White opened the scoring with an RBI single to right that tied the game in the bottom of the second.