BOSTON – As the first game of a big rivalry weekend series against the Yankees started to slip away in Friday night’s eventual 4-1 defeat at Fenway Park, the Red Sox set out to avoid being on the wrong side of history.
Not since Dave Righetti on July 4, 1983, at Yankee Stadium had there been a no-hitter in this rivalry. Boston was also trying to avoid the indignity of being no-hit at Fenway Park for the first time since Detroit’s Jim Bunning (a former United States senator) pulled it off on July 20, 1958.
Nate Eaton left Righetti and Bunning in their respective spots of honor, lining a solo shot to left off reliever Fernando Cruz with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Red Sox their first hit of the night. There would be just one more – a line-drive single to left by Alex Bregman in the bottom of the eighth.
Under different circumstances, manager Alex Cora’s club might have taken more enthusiasm in preventing a no-hitter.
But the postseason race is the priority at this juncture, and this frustrating defeat dropped the Red Sox (81-67) 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees (82-65) for the top American League Wild Card spot.
Of course, the Red Sox can turn that deficit right around by winning the final two games of this series.
“We were flat today, but that doesn’t mean that’s going to continue tomorrow,” said Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito. “We have [Brayan] Bello going. He’s been fantastic, so I look forward to watching him. And yeah, we can go and take the series. It’s just a matter of staying within ourselves and doing what we know how to do.”
What the Red Sox haven’t been able to do enough of late is hit the baseball, particularly with runners in scoring position. Boston was 0-for-8 in that category on Friday.
Down two key hitters in Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu, the Sox have been out of sync offensively for over a week. And it showed in this one, with Luis Gil throwing six no-hit innings before turning it over to the bullpen.
“Not much tonight,” said Cora. “[Gil] changed speeds. He used his changeup a lot. We couldn’t do much. We put pressure [in the fifth with] the two walks [to start the inning], but didn’t cash in. So let’s get ready for tomorrow.”
The Yankees and Red Sox hold the 4-5 seeds in the AL at this point, meaning they would face off in the Wild Card Series if that is still the case at the end of the season. Boston owns the tiebreaker against New York due to winning the season series. All games in the best-of-three series would be played at the venue of the team with the higher seed.
For that series to take place at Fenway, the Red Sox are going to have to find a way to get their mojo back as an offensive unit, even with two key cogs out for varying levels of time. Abreu (right calf strain) could be back as early as next week. Anthony (left oblique strain) might not play again in the regular season.
The lineup is slumping collectively. Ceddanne Rafaela, the team’s hottest player in the weeks leading up to the All-Star break, has a .518 OPS since July 18. Bregman, the team’s early-season MVP, has a line of .158/.235/.197 with just three extra-base hits in his past 85 plate appearances.
Cora saw glimmers of hope from both players on Friday.
“Ceddanne took the two walks. Alex walked and got the base hit. So there’s a few signs out there that tell me that some guys are going to get hot, but as a unit, we have to be better,” Cora said.
The way the offense is going, there is a lot of pressure on the rotation to be spot-on.
Giolito allowed a mammoth solo shot to Aaron Judge in the top of the first, but he settled down to give the Sox another strong performance, scattering five hits, walking one and allowing two runs (one earned) over 5 2/3 innings.
However, Giolito wasn’t thrilled with it.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Giolito said. “The other guy is throwing zero after zero. I’ve got to match that for us to have a chance to win. The homer to Judge in the first was very avoidable. I yanked a heater all the way across the plate. I feel like that was a big momentum shift. I’ve got to be better than that in a game like this.”
