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.
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, with a sweep against the Angels in Anaheim 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, interim manager Chad 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.
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 burnt 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. Abreu did his job, lofting a sacrifice fly to right to give the Red Sox their first lead of the day.
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, Wilyer 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.