ST. PETERSBURG -- Early on, there were signs of encouragement. Maybe, just maybe, this could be a happy flight home for the Red Sox, who led by two runs halfway through Thursday afternoon’s finale against the Rays.
And then, that roof above Tropicana Field again felt to the Red Sox like it was caving in on them in what wound up a 9-3 defeat on getaway day.
The feeling Boston experienced while giving up seven runs in a game-turning bottom of the fifth has become an all too familiar one. The Red Sox have lost their last 13 games at the Trop, dating back to April 23, 2022.
The Rays? They extended their season-opening winning streak to 13 games, matching the 1982 Braves and ‘87 Brewers for the longest since '01.
Don’t expect the Red Sox (5-8) to be sad about not being around on Friday night when the Rays try to break the record. Getting out of Tropicana Field had to feel like a relief for a Boston team that will open a four-game series against the Angels at Fenway on Friday night.
“Disappointed,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “This is a place that obviously we want to come in here and win, right? They play in our division and we haven’t done that. Just got to be ready for tomorrow. That’s the most important thing. I don’t know when we come back, but when we come back, we’ve got to win games.”
Fortunately for the Sox, 143 days will pass until Labor Day. That is when Cora’s squad gets its next chance to disprove the notion that Tropicana Field is its house of horrors.
“Listen, there’s no excuse,” said second baseman Christian Arroyo. “They’re playing good baseball right now and good things are happening. There’s not really much to say. They’re a good baseball team. They pitch when they need to pitch. They put the ball in play when they need to put the ball in play. They drive guys in when they need to drive guys in. That’s all the characteristics of a good baseball team.”
Might the Red Sox be capable of showing those same characteristics?
“I mean, we showed a glimpse of it already,” said Arroyo. “First series against Baltimore, we showed that our offense can do what they do and put up crooked numbers and stuff. Against Detroit, we swept. First game here was a well-played game from both ends. Give up the homer in the eighth inning, you lose 1-0. What are you going to do? It’s frustrating. We come in here, we want to take it to them and have a successful road trip, but that’s just how it went. Seven-run fifth.”
Yes, that seven-run fifth. What an odd inning that was. It started with a 77 mph double off the bat of Harold Ramírez. With two on and one out and the lead down to a run, Cora went to Richard Bleier for a left-on-left matchup against Brandon Lowe. Of course, Lowe got just enough of a 91 mph single to bounce it into center and tie the game. Of the six hits the Rays had in the inning, only one was classified as a hard-hit ball.
A half inning that starts with a 3-1 lead typically doesn’t end with an 8-3 deficit. But such is life right now for the Red Sox and the Rays.
“At the end of the day, I didn’t get the job done, so it doesn’t really matter how the result happened,” said Bleier. “I need to do better than that, obviously, but as a ground-ball pitcher, and getting ground balls, sometimes they just don’t translate to outs like we all hoped they would. And they’re just playing really good baseball right now. It seems like everything is going their way.”
As for the Red Sox, they’ve been erratic. After taking two of three from the Orioles to open the season -- putting up nine runs in each of the three games -- they followed by getting swept at home by the Pirates. Then Boston did the sweeping in Detroit. The brooms came out again at Tropicana Field, but not in the way the Red Sox desired.
“Less than ideal,” starter Corey Kluber said of the events that transpired the past four days. “Got another series starting tomorrow and have an opportunity to turn it around.”