ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As prepared and assured as the Rays were heading into the playoffs with their American League-best 100 wins, it seemed they were hiding an ugly truth.
Team officials insisted they had full confidence in their rebuilt bullpen despite some obvious signs of concern between inexperience, inconsistency and ineffectiveness.
Friday, that became an issue, as the Rays lost an early lead, then lost Game 2 of the American League Division Series, 14-6, to the Red Sox. They gave up a season-high 20 hits overall.
Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Sunday in Boston. By splitting the first two games the Sox now have home-field advantage, with two of the three potential remaining games at Fenway Park.
The Rays led 5-3 when rookie Shane Baz was pulled one out into the third inning after a shaky postseason debut and fourth big league outing overall.
By the end of the long night, four Rays relievers allowed 11 runs, and four home runs, disappointing a Tropicana Field crowd of 37,616 that had been roaring earlier in the game.
The Rays had a 5-2 lead after the first thanks mostly to a grand slam by Jordan Luplow, who showed the power against lefties the Rays sought in acquiring him from Cleveland at the trade deadline. And in the process they knocked out Sox starter Chris Sale, the Lakeland, Fla.-born lefty who often gives the Rays fits
Baz let the Sox get within 5-3 when he allowed a homer to Xander Bogaerts on his 47th and final pitch.
That left 6 2/3 innings for the bullpen to cover, and it didn’t take long to see they were going to turn the job into an adventure.
Collin McHugh, arguably the Rays’ most dependable reliever, took over and allowed a home run to his first batter, Alex Verdugo. McHugh retired the next five. But after allowing only three homers all season in facing 247 batters over 37 games, he gave up a second in the span of seven, as Enrique Hernandez’s shot to lead off the fifth tied the score, 5-5.
McHugh was lifted after walking Rafael Devers, and Matt Wisler came in an made a mess. He allowed a single to Bogaerts, got Verdugo on a line out then allowed a three-run homer to J.D. Martinez, who wasn’t declared a go for the lineup until about an hour before first pitch due to a sore right ankle that kept him out of Thursday’s opener.
That put the Sox up 8-5, and they added on after a scoreless sixth by David Robertson. Michael Wacha, who made the 13-pitcher roster to provide multiple-relief innings, allowed three singles and one run in the seventh. Then he allowed a double and a two-out homer to Devers in the eighth, and three more runs in the ninth.
Ji-Man Choi homered for the Rays in the sixth.
