Anthony hits first Fenway HR of season, but Boston's pitching struggles continue

BOSTON -- A brief three-game homestand that started with the electricity of a walk-off win ended with a thud.

For the second straight day, the Mariners took it to the Red Sox, capping the three-game series with an 8-3 victory against Boston in the Wednesday afternoon rubber match.

Seattle won Tuesday’s contest, 9-6, but had a commanding 9-1 lead for much of the night.

The Red Sox, who have had a habit of fluctuating between hot and cold this season, have lost six of their last eight as they head to Baltimore for a four-game series that starts Thursday night.​

Prior to that stretch, Boston had won seven out of eight. The Orioles themselves had won eight of their last 10 games heading into a three-game series in Colorado, where they dropped two games.

In particular, the pitching has struggled during this current rut. The rotation has a 10.13 ERA in the last four games while the relievers have a 10.50 ERA in the last five.

“We’ve definitely struggled. We've obviously gone through some stuff as far as getting the rotation online, getting Sonny [Gray] rest, and having to use a spot starter, going through some of these things,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “But certainly the season ebbs and flows. We're going through a little bit of a rough patch there, but if we string together some good starts, we'll be in good shape.

“The flip side of the coin is that we actually are swinging the bats pretty good. We're getting a lot of traffic, so we’ve got to get that point squared away.”

Tracy’s squad is 75-65 with 22 games left in the season. The Red Sox continue to hold possession of the second American League Wild Card spot.

Here were some key takeaways from Wednesday.

1. Roman clears the Monster
While the Red Sox are 1-3 since the return of Roman Anthony and Trevor Story, who were both out for more than three months, the duo has performed well since coming back. Anthony was a bright spot in Wednesday’s loss, belting three hits, including an opposite-field shot over the Green Monster.

“I've felt good since I've been back,” said Anthony. “Just kind of feeding off the energy of the fans, my teammates, everything. It's felt good to be back.”

It was Anthony’s second homer of the season, first at Fenway and first since April 1 in Houston. While Story’s streak of three straight two-hit games upon his return ended, he did hit a double into the corner in left to put the Red Sox on the board in the fourth inning.

“He looks fantastic,” said Tracy. “He looks really, really good. That’s looking at things broadly and positively, that there are good things going on for sure. His at-bat quality is really, really good.”

2. Sandoval struggles
Five days after making his best start since returning from Tommy John surgery against the Yankees, Patrick Sandoval took a step back against the Mariners. In four innings (plus one batter in the fifth), the lefty gave up five hits and four runs (three earned) while walking three and striking out two. All four runs came in the third inning.

“Yeah, I was just fighting myself the whole game, getting myself into bad counts,” said Sandoval. “I was able to get out of them in the first two innings, and then the third inning kind of snowballed. Just got to do better.”

Of Sandoval’s 80 pitches, only 40 were for strikes. Sandoval is 1-4 with a 4.41 ERA in the 10 starts since he was activated.

“Pitching against the Giants and then the Yankees, I felt like I had good control over my mechanics, and it was something we worked on in between after a rough one in Pittsburgh,” Sandoval said. “I was feeling like I'm in a really good place physically, mentally, and then today was just not what we were looking for.”

3. Bello’s second straight clunker
In Brayan Bello’s first 12 outings as a reliever this season, he was nearly spotless, going 4-0 with a 0.99 ERA. His last two appearances have been a markedly different picture.

After giving up five hits and four runs in 4 1/3 innings while taking the loss at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Bello tried to keep the Sox in the game on Wednesday after Sandoval’s rough outing, but to no avail. While Sandoval was tagged for four runs in the third inning, Bello was touched up for a four-spot in the sixth, pinning Boston in an 8-1 hole. In three innings, Bello gave up four runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out none.

With Boston’s bullpen thin, Bello pitched on three days of rest after throwing 94 pitches at Yankee Stadium.

“Not to put any excuses out there or anything like that, but I knew the bullpen was thin so I offered myself to pitch today and I felt really good,” Bello said. “It’s just things that happen sometimes.”