BOSTON – The Red Sox had momentum on offense and the mound as they took a season-high five-game winning streak with them back to Fenway Park on Tuesday night.
But on what proved to be an eventful night for unfortunate reasons, the Sox saw their streak snapped in an 8-1 loss to the Nationals.
Here are three key takeaways.
1. Early leaves with left elbow discomfort
Entering the night, Red Sox rotation members had produced 12 straight quality starts, just two shy of the club record set in 1988. Nobody could have predicted the streak would end with rookie lefty Connelly Early being forced to depart after four scoreless innings due to left elbow discomfort.
Early, who has been thriving as of late along with the rest of Boston’s rotation, will undergo imaging on Wednesday.
Even when a pitcher has a minor injury, it’s typical to at least miss one start, if not spend a stint on the 15-day injured list.
“We’ll see what the images show,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “Obviously we’re very hopeful that the images give us good results, but, still, something happened. So, fingers crossed. But it's not unreasonable to think that maybe he misses one [start].”
Early said he felt the discomfort on his final pitch of the night.
“I'm personally not too concerned as of right now,” said Early. “We'll see tomorrow with imaging. Just trying to kind of figure out what to do from there. It's tough. I thought I was throwing the ball really well. I felt really good going into the game, so just a little unfortunate thing that happened there. We'll see what happens tomorrow.”
2. Contreras ejected again, faces possible discipline
Red Sox slugger Willson Contreras gained a dubious distinction on Tuesday when he became the first Boston player on record to be ejected in consecutive games. When Nationals righty Cade Cavalli struck Contreras out looking on a 3-2 cutter in the bottom of the fourth inning, the pitcher yelled, “Sit down, boy!”
Contreras, who is intense on every day that ends in y, said he was more set off by Cavalli shouting at him than the words he said. A bench-clearing fracas ensued. Contreras fired his helmet in the direction of Cavalli, but missed.
Now, the Red Sox will await word from MLB on whether their most productive hitter will be suspended.
“You’re worried about it, but I also want it to be looked at fully on what happened on the other end of this,” said Tracy, who didn’t think it was fair that Cavalli stayed in the game.
3. Duran mired in funk, could be out Wednesday
Sox left fielder Jarren Duran finished out one of the worst statistical months of his career on Tuesday night, going 0-for-3. With lefty Andrew Alvarez scheduled to pitch the finale of the homestand on Wednesday afternoon, there seems to be a strong chance Duran could be out of the lineup. With a team off-day on Thursday, that would give Duran a couple of days to reset.
After belting nine homers to go with an .879 OPS in May, Duran plummeted to a .395 OPS in June that included a slash line of .144/.168/.227 with just three extra-base hits in 25 games.
“When he gets hot, he can hit lefties and righties,” said Tracy. “So this stretch coming up, you might see a couple lefties that we opt with Nate [Eaton] and do that, with the goal being in mind, if we get a hot Jarren, then he's in there constantly because he can do a lot of damage.”