Here’s the short list of highlights for the Rays from Monday’s game in Boston:
Randy Arozarena made a spectacular running, leaping catch in rightfield that you will see on highlight clips for a while.
And here’s the long, and not necessarily complete, list of what went wrong in the 11-2 loss to the Red Sox:
Starter Michael Wacha and just-called-up reliever Chris Mazza didn’t pitch well. The offense was concerningly quiet, held to seven hits total and 0-for-its-first-seven with runners in scoring position. And the defense wasn’t sharp, including Arozarena, Willy Adames and Mike Zunino, who teamed for a messy fifth-inning sequence that gave Xander Bogaerts a two-run Little League homer.
Plus, centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier left the game with left quad tightness, and veteran reliever Chaz Roe was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain that may sideline him into July.
And lost along the way was the Rays’ eight-game win streak at Fenway Park that dated to June 9, 2019, their longest such streak at an opponent’s stadium.
Wacha, in his first outing for the Rays, navigated some slight trouble relatively well in the first three innings, then gave up two runs in the fourth and fifth, though the defense was also to blame.
Mazza, called up from the taxi squad to replace Roe, gave up six runs.
The Rays had some chances, with two on in the first, fifth and sixth, and nothing to show for it.
They didn’t get a hit with a runner in scoring position until the eighth when Yoshi Tsutsugo, Arozarena and Brandon Lowe singled. And they didn’t score until Darwinzon Hernandez came on for Boston, walking Manuel Margot and Yandy Diaz with the bases loaded.
