BOSTON -- There was little question from the sound off the bat that Matt Barnes' fastball to José Abreu was going to propel out of Fenway Park.

The home run traveled 401 feet over the Green Monster Wall at a racing speed of 105 mph, according to Statcast, taking the Red Sox's comeback attempt with it on Wednesday afternoon.

"I didn't do my job," Barnes said following the Red Sox's 8-7 loss to the White Sox. "Offense did a phenomenal job of coming back and scoring three in the eighth. To give it up like that, it's tough."

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After trailing by two runs heading into the eighth inning, the Red Sox put together a three-run rally for what would have been their 26th come-from-behind victory this season. But unlike Monday night, when the Red Sox won with a walk-off single by Marco Hernandez in the ninth, it was the White Sox who played spoiler this time.

Abreu won the battle of a 10-pitch at-bat. Down in the count 1-2, Abreu fouled off three straight pitches, took a ball in the dirt, fouled off three more pitches and then smacked a 96.9-mph four-seam fastball deep to left. Barnes threw 16 of his 23 pitches for strikes.

"In the entire at-bat, the only mistake I made was the one he hit," Barnes said. "It's unfortunate. I executed damn-near every single pitch that I wanted to him, and the one that didn't get there, he hit a home run. That's tough to swallow when you execute 90 percent of the time, and the one time costs you the game."

It was not the first time the Red Sox pitching was hit hard by Abreu in this series. The White Sox first baseman belted a 430-foot home run over the Green Monster off Eduardo Rodriguez on Monday.

"At this level, you know you need to make adjustments pitch-by-pitch," said Abreu. "That's what I was trying to do in that at-bat. I tip my cap to the Red Sox, because they put up a good fight."

Barnes was charged with his sixth blown save of the season, and overall Boston has 16 blown saves this year. Barnes, who threw one inning on Tuesday, entered the game with an 8.64 ERA on zero days rest, compared to 3.52 on one day of rest.

"We've been playing a lot of close games, and we've been using a lot of people," manager Alex Cora said. "Today, Chris [Sale] gave us six, obviously wasn't perfect, and we got the lead in the eighth and he was a guy we needed today, and it just didn't happen."

Sale described his 17th start of the season as "rough, again." He allowed five runs off six hits, including a home run to James McCann, in six innings. The White Sox scored three runs in the first inning after the first four batters got on base.

"I've just got to find a way to get on top of that, find a way to get in a groove and get comfortable out there and just put it all together," Sale said. "It's just one of those things that's kind of gotten away, gotten out of hand, too. I can't put our guys in a hole like that early on."

Finding the strike zone was not an issue for Sale, who continued to tally up double-digit K's. He struck out 10 batters, fanning 10 or more in five of his last six starts. But he remains winless at Fenway Park, where he is 0-2 with a 4.27 ERA in eight starts. Last season, Sale went 4-2 with a 2.11 ERA in Boston.

"Nothing [feels different]. For some reason, I suck here. I don't know what it is, but I've had maybe, for me, I think I've only had one good game here. I don't know what it is. I usually, the last couple of years I feel like I've done pretty well here. We always have good crowds, and pitching at Fenway's always fun. But for whatever reason, I just haven't been able to put it together here."

The loss highlighted the Red Sox's struggles at home this season, as they fell to 20-20 at Fenway Park. They will travel to London to face the American League East first-place Yankees on Saturday and Sunday, which count as Red Sox home games. Then they head on the road, where they are 24-18, for six games in Toronto and Detroit.

"We just need to get better around -- just offensively, defensively, running the bases, pitching, everything," Cora said. "For us to get to where we plan on going, we have to step it up."