Red Sox's late homers not quite enough vs. tough Rays pitching

ST. PETERSBURG -- A late flurry led by an unprecedented power surge -- from Caleb Durbin (first multihomer game of his career) and a three-run jack by Ceddanne Rafaela in the top of the eighth inning that brought a five-run deficit down to one -- only made you wonder how the day might have wound up for the Red Sox if not for Drew Rasmussen’s utter shutdown of the visitors during his seven-inning performance.

Rasmussen, who had a lights-out day of pitching for the Rays en route to his team’s 7-5 victory on Wednesday afternoon that capped a three-game sweep of the reeling Red Sox, made sure there was zero production during his seven scoreless innings. The righty allowed two hits and one walk while punching out 13.

The way the Red Sox are built right now offensively, the quartet at the top of the order needs to set the tone. Thanks to Rasmussen, who mastered Boston as his team built a 5-0 lead, there was no tone to be set. In fact, the righty’s performance against Boston’s 1-2-3 hitters proved to be historic.

Jarren Duran, Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu became the first trio of starters in the top three spots in the order to each strike out in their first three plate appearances since at least 1900, per the Elias Sports Bureau. Cleanup man Willson Contreras struck out in two of his three plate appearances against Tampa Bay’s hard-throwing righty.

The 11 strikeouts for the first four spots in the batting order tied a team record (done three times before) for a nine-inning game.

“He had good stuff. He's a good pitcher with strikeout stuff,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “Fastballs elevated. We definitely went out of the zone a little [too] much. We’ve got to rein that in. But he was very effective.”

Rasmussen preyed on Boston’s inability to stay in the zone enough.

“I think we wanted to be effective working north-south today, for the most part, and just had the ability to do it effectively,” Rasmussen said. “[Catcher Nick Fortes] called a great game. So just the two of us being on the same page and the ability to expand from the strike zone after being competitive early in counts, I think really helped with the efficiency."

Was it the nastiest stuff the Red Sox had seen from a starting pitcher all season?

“No,” said Rafaela. “I think he just executed his pitches. I’m not taking anything from him. It wasn’t a really good day for us.”

The last few days haven’t been good for Boston.

For a road trip that started with promise via a 5-3 victory at Yankee Stadium, it ended in a dead end, as the Sox lost the final four games on their journey while being outscored by 10 (20-10).

At 27-39, Boston is 12 games below .500 for the first time since finishing the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with a 24-36 record.

Perhaps Thursday’s off-day will give the Sox a chance to regroup before trying to reverse their fortunes at Fenway Park, where they have the worst home record in the Majors at 10-21.

“Really tough,” Durbin said of the road trip. “But we’ve got to bounce back. Off-day tomorrow will be a good reset, for sure. But then, obviously, you have to get something going at home. It's not really a choice at this point. Got to get it going.”

This was the latest in a recent series of games in which the Red Sox worked their way back from a multirun deficit, only to fall short at the end.

“We need wins right now,” said Tracy. “We know that. They know that. I've said before, there's no consolation prizes, but you like to see when your guys don't just roll over and cash it in. They keep fighting.”

If the fight doesn’t start equating to victories soon, the Red Sox could be in trouble.

“We put ourselves in the position again to win, and it just didn't happen,” Rafaela said. “Have to go home and try to win a ballgame.”

And quite a few more after that. The Red Sox will head home with only one team -- the Angels -- behind them in the American League Wild Card standings.

“It’s tough,” said Tracy. “[The trip] got off to a really good start in New York, and then the way it finished, I think it'd probably be good for everybody to have a breather tomorrow.”