PITTSBURGH -- The Red Sox, baseball’s hottest team in July by a lot, are now trying to emerge from the dreaded dog days of August.
It seemed like interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad might have created some momentum to do so by salvaging the finale of a four-game series in Toronto on Thursday with the combination of a Payton Tolle gem and a Caleb Durbin grand slam.
But the Sox couldn’t build on it on Friday night, taking an 8-4 defeat to the Pirates in the opener of a three-game series.
Immediately following a glittering 27-3 run -- the best 30-game sequence in the history of the franchise, Boston has lost six of its last seven.
“Obviously, we're not playing the way we want to,” said Tracy. “They're still fighting. I think most guys in that room know teams go through this. The key is we have to find a way to get ourselves going again. [We need to] get on another stretch going the other direction. And if you do that, this all becomes a forgotten thing.”
The good news is the Red Sox (65-57), on the strength of that epic 30-game stretch, are still in good position in the standings, holding possession of second place in the AL Wild Card standings by five games and trailing the Yankees (68-54) by three games for the top Wild Card spot with 40 games left in the season.
“It’s part of the game, part of baseball,” said Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu. “There's up and downs. We're struggling a little bit right now.”
Here were the moments that mattered the most at PNC Park.
1. Bennett cooling off
For a six-start stretch from June 17-July 17, rookie lefty Jake Bennett was tremendous, going 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA while walking four and striking out 30 over 38 1/3 innings. Opponents hit just .152 off him.
It has been a different story in his last five outings, culminating Friday with Bennett’s first start of less than five innings in his 14 outings this season. Since July 22, Bennett is 2-3 with a 5.67 ERA, giving up 31 hits in 27 innings while walking eight and striking out 23.
On Friday night, Bennett was tagged for five hits and four runs over four innings, walking one and striking out six. Three of the runs scored in the fourth inning. Bennett threw 82 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.
“Yeah, it's definitely disappointing,” said Bennett. “I want to try and go as deep into games as I can. I was just trying to give my team the best chance to win. So, coming up short today is pretty disappointing.”
2. Contreras thrown out the plate
The Red Sox didn’t generate much against Bubba Chandler early on, as the Pittsburgh righty sent down 12 of the first 13 batters he faced. Perhaps that’s why interim third-base coach Chad Epperson decided to be aggressive in trying to score Willson Contreras from first on a double off the wall in right-center by Abreu in the top of the fourth.
Contreras, who candidly told reporters earlier this week he was holding back on the bases for fear of blowing out an ailing hamstring, was thrown out the plate as the Pirates executed the 8-6-2 play perfectly to end the inning. At the time, the Sox trailed just 1-0. The out at the plate became more glaring when the Bucs scored those three runs off Bennett in the bottom of the frame.
“[Contreras'] hamstring’s in a much better spot,” said Tracy. "The way things were going in the early part of the game against Chandler and how he was throwing the ball -- and you can't negate that it was a pretty good relay throw on an in-between hop, and then a pick and tag. If the ball ... kicks away, we’ve got a run. So based on how the game was going, taking a chance to get the game tied, I have no issue with that.”
3. Morán mishap against Sox killer stings
The Red Sox grinded their way back into the ballgame in the top of the fifth, slicing a 4-0 lead to 4-2 on an RBI single by Andruw Monasterio and a sacrifice fly by Nick Sogard.
But the momentum went right back the other way in the bottom of the inning. Lefty reliever Jovani Morán was two strikes away from escaping traffic. But his 2-1 changeup hung over the middle of the plate and longtime Red Sox nemesis Brandon Lowe hammered a three-run homer to right.
In 70 career games against Boston, including 63 starts, Lowe has a batting line of .291/.395/.608 with 21 homers and 53 RBIs in 281 plate appearances.