Starting Tyler Glasnow, scratching out a few runs and getting two innings of good-enough relief looked to be the right formula for the Rays Tuesday in Boston as they sought to put a pair of ugly losses behind them.
But reliever Diego Castillo spoiled that, allowing a game-tying homer to Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez leading off the ninth on an 0-2 pitch, a 96 mph sinker that didn’t sink enough.
It took a while longer, and included a few more helping hands, but the Rays ended up with a third straight loss, 6-5 in 12 innings.
The Rays took the lead in the top of the 12th, Mike Zunino moving to third on a wild pitch by Phillips Valdez, then scoring on a slow grounder by Randy Arozarena.
Ryan Thompson failed to hold the Sox down in the bottom of the 12th, hitting Alex Verdugo with two outs and throwing a wild pitch to move the runners to third and second, then allowing a drive by J.D. Martinez over Arozarena’s head in right.
Starting with a runner on second under the continuation of the 2020 rules, neither team scored in the 10th, the Rays getting an impressive escape job by reliever Andrew Kittredge, whose season ended last year in Boston when he walked off the mound with an elbow injury.
Then both teams scored in the 11th. Willy Adames, who made a baserunning mistake earlier, doubled in Brandon Lowe for the Rays. Rafael Devers slapped Jeffrey Springs’ first pitch for a single to get the Red Sox even, though Springs and Thompson teamed to keep them there.
Glasnow followed up his opening-day gem with another much-needed strong outing at Fenway Park, working six innings again, scattering four hits, allowing one run (that scored on a wild pitch in the first), walking two and striking out nine.
Most impressively, he got big outs when he needed them.
He struck out Marwin Gonzalez looking at a 98.5 mph fastball with runners on second and third to end the fourth. Then with two on and two out in the sixth, Glasnow got pinch-hitter Kike Hernandez swinging at a 98.1 mph fastball.
Cody Reed and Pete Fairbanks got the Rays to the ninth, but that’s where Castillo let them down.
The Rays put eight right-handed hitters, including debuting infielder Kevin Padlo in their lineup to combat Sox lefty Martin Perez, who has been tough on them over the years wearing different uniforms.
They got two runs in the third, loading the bases with one out when Zunino singled, Yandy Diaz walked and Arozarena singled. An out later, Manuel Margot delivered their first clutch hit, a single to right that scored two.
The Rays extended the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Joey Wendle came through with a two-out pinch-hit single. That scored Lowe, who walked, then went to third when Adames hit a ball off the Green Monster but got thrown out heading back to first after not running hard out of the box.
The Sox closed to within 3-2 in the eighth against Fairbanks when Verdugo doubled in front of Margot in center and Martinez doubled over the head of Arozarena in eight. But the Rays got a break when Martinez broke from second on Devers’ one-out liner to center, and Margot made the catch and the easy toss to second to double him off.
The Rays went down quickly in their 10th, then navigated a Boston threat, thanks to a strong performance by Kittredge.
The Sox moved Hernandez to third with one out. The Rays intentionally walked Verdugo. Martinez grounded to Adames, who checked the runner and got the second out at first. And then Kittredge, whose season ended last year in Boston when he walked off the mound with an elbow injury, came up with a big strikeout, setting down Xander Bogaerts.
