BOSTON -- What an opportunity Roman Anthony had to turn the page on his early-season throwing issues from left field.
In a tie game with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, the Brewers teed it up for Anthony to throw Brice Turang out at the plate with a throw that would have made an impressive Monday night crowd of 35,107 at Fenway Park erupt with joy.
And it would have been so fitting on a night the ballpark giveaway was Anthony’s rookie card bobblehead.
But nothing has gone as planned for the Red Sox in the first 10 games, and Anthony’s latest misfire helped lead to an 8-6 defeat that put manager Alex Cora’s team at 2-8 for just the ninth time in club history.
“It was a terrible throw, again,” said Anthony. “We didn’t have a shot with that throw. Gotta be better. It was terrible.”
Making matters worse was that after the throw took a bad hop past cutoff man Caleb Durbin, righty Garrett Whitlock wasn’t there to back it up, allowing a second run to score on what was charged as an error to Anthony.
While Cora said a couple days ago that footwork was forcing issues with Anthony’s throws, it turns out there is a second issue.
“Just struggling to get a grip [on the ball], but at the end, there’s no excuse,” said Anthony. “It’s terrible. It’s bad baseball. It’s on me. It’s just a mix of everything. At the end of the day, it’s gotta be at least competitive, and it wasn’t. Again. So, it’s terrible.”
Mitchell’s hit was a 217-foot single to left. It was the type of hit that generally doesn’t compel a send from the third-base coach at Fenway Park, where left field is notoriously shallow. Turang was a step or two short of the third-base bag when Anthony fielded the ball.
But third-base coach Matt Erickson was aggressive, and it paid off.
“I’ll take a look at the video, but obviously it wasn't a good throw. It’s mechanics,” said Cora. “Whit didn’t back up. That’s happened twice this week. We’re just watching the play. When the ball is hit, you’ve got to go somewhere. The only people that can watch are people in the stands. Obviously, they're not too happy.”
Of late, Cora had been using Anthony as the DH. But with Jarren Duran getting the night off on Monday, Masataka Yoshida was at DH, while Anthony made his first start in left since last Tuesday. Anthony had started four of the first five games in left field, with Duran mostly being used as the DH.
In what has become a recurring issue, the Sox again didn’t get enough length from their starting pitcher. This time, it was Brayan Bello, who labored through 86 pitches while recording just 10 outs. The righty gave up five hits and four runs (three earned) while walking four and striking out five. On the plus side, he generated 17 swings and misses.
The Brewers, almost unfathomably, scored four runs in that fourth frame, but didn’t hit a ball out of the infield.
After jumping out to a 4-0 lead against the Padres on Sunday and losing, 8-6, Bello quickly squandered a 3-0 lead on Monday.
“Like I said a few days ago, we have to pitch for us to get back to .500,” Cora said. “To go to where we want to go, we have to pitch. That's the bottom line. We walked eight. They had 18 at-bats with men in scoring position. It's very hard to win that way.”
To avoid losing four straight series to open the season, Boston will need to beat the Brewers the next two nights at Fenway. Tuesday, fans will be treated to a marquee pitching matchup as Sox ace Garrett Crochet goes against Brewers flame-throwing phenom Jacob Misiorowski
Instead of just being able to relish the matchup, Crochet has the added pressure of stopping his club’s stunning early-season slide.
“It’s always important to have [Crochet],” said Cora. “But I think it takes more than Garrett. It’s a total team effort. We’ve got to put a full game together -- pitch, play good defense, run the bases well. We need one of those.”
For a frustrated Fenway crowd that let out boos at the end of the night, patience is wearing thin.
“I know our work ethic, our responsibility is there,” said first baseman Willson Contreras, who reached base a career-high-tying five times. “We want to win. It will turn around. We need to find that spark, that little spark to turn it around.”