BOSTON — Josh Fleming enjoyed the first day of the Rays’ visit to Fenway Park on Tuesday.
He and teammates Louis Head and Shane McClanahan got to venture inside the famed Green Monster wall, soaking in the history, taking pictures, adding their signatures to those of the hundreds of other players who preceded them.
“I took a picture of it, sent it to my wife, sent it to my parents, agent, friends back home. They were all going crazy,’’ Fleming said. “That was the one thing that they said that, like, ‘Hey, if you go there, make sure you sign the Monster!’ I knew it was a thing, but I didn’t realize like how big of a thing it actually was. And getting back there, it’s like wow, it’s definitely just awesome. Just an awesome feeling.’’
Wednesday didn’t go so well, as Fleming was a big reason the Rays got blasted by the Red Sox 20-8.
Bumped up a day with Ryan Yarbrough going on the COVID-19-related injured list (though still on six days’ rest) and tabbed to start, Fleming had the worst performance of his budding big-league.
The lefty gave up 10 runs on 11 hits and six walks (two intentional) over 3⅓ innings. Put another way, of the 26 batters Fleming faced, 17 reached base and 11 scored.
It wasn’t just the pitching that was bad for the Rays.
The Rays’ position players managed just three hits and one run until the ninth — on Brandon Lowe’s team-leading 26th homer. Then they got seven runs, including Brett Phillips’ third grand slam of the season and Mike Zunino’s 22nd home run.
Rightfielder Randy Arozarena lost/misjudged a fly ball with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth, allowing three more runs that were charged to Dietrich Enns.
Otherwise, Enns did a good job in saving the Rays from further taxing their bullpen, which has been worked heavily and faces another challenge Thursday. Catcher Francisco Mejia worked the eighth inning, giving up six runs.
With Fleming working Wednesday, the Rays will move reliever Drew Rasmussen into a starter’s role Thursday and put another heavy workload on the bullpen.
The loss ended the Rays’ six-game winning streak against the Red Sox and five-game overall streak, dropped them to 69-45 and reduced their American League East lead over Boston to four games.
The Red Sox jumped on Fleming early, with their first three hitters ripping doubles, and five runs scoring on his first 13 pitches. They added two in the second and expanded the lead to 10-0 in the fourth.
