Red Sox Play Just Well Enough to Lose!
A 5-3 Loss at the Hands of the Last Place Jays Spoils Rutschman's Debut
Another night in August beyond the nine-game winning streak, and another loss for the 2026 Boston Red Sox. Like the previous three games, the Sox played just well enough to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, only to fall short once again.
One thing is for certain: this team really does like to go streaking in the summertime! A 15-game winning streak, then a nine-game winning streak, and now a four-game, and counting, losing streak.
The most frustrating part about this loss, and the three before it, is just how similar the team is playing to those gut-wrenching days back in the spring. They are leaving runners in scoring position (0-for-7 on Tuesday), giving opponents extra outs (Durbin’s error in the fifth led directly to Toronto tying the game), and allowing the opposition to answer immediately after Boston scores. In both the third and fifth innings, Patrick Sandoval was unable to deliver the much-needed “shutdown” inning to keep the momentum on Boston’s side.
And then there is the pièce de résistance: the two-out nightmare.
Red Sox pitching allowed three of Toronto’s five runs to score after recording the second out of the inning.
Sandoval Exposed
Patrick Sandoval is exactly what we expected him to be: an end-of-the-rotation pitcher with major league experience and just enough veteran guile to navigate his way through a professional lineup twice while keeping his team in the game.
On Tuesday night, that’s pretty much what Chad Tracy got from him.
Through five innings, Sandoval had allowed three runs, only one of them earned, on six hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. It wasn’t dominant, but with the game tied, it was certainly good enough to give Boston a chance to win.
Unfortunately, Tracy let Sandoval take the mound in the bottom of the sixth, and with that decision, he essentially sealed the Red Sox’s fate for the evening.
Now, to be fair, during the incredible run through July and into August, the Boston bullpen logged an incredible number of innings, and to their credit, they were outstanding. But all of that work left many of the high-leverage arms running on fumes, and Tracy appeared hesitant to use anyone of consequence unless absolutely necessary.
Unfortunately for him, this roll of the dice came up seven.
To be fair to Tracy, reliever Seth Martinez also surrendered a very costly insurance run in the eighth inning with two outs, perhaps providing a little credence to his thinking about squeezing one more inning out of Sandoval.
Willson!!!
It certainly appears that Willson Contreras is battling some type of ailment because he simply hasn’t been the same offensive player since returning after missing a few games during the homestand.
We don’t know whether it’s lingering effects from strep throat, continued pain from fouling a ball off his shin, or perhaps the aftereffects of the 95 MPH fastball he took off the dome in Sacramento.
Whatever it is, Contreras looks like a shell of himself both at the plate and on the bases.
One of the defining characteristics of his game is his fiery personality, and as his production has dipped, so too has that trademark energy and passion.
I think it’s time for Chad Tracy to seriously consider getting Willson off his feet for a week or so with the hope that he’ll return refreshed for the stretch run.
Would Getting a Hit Kill Ya?!
Productive at-bats are all well and good, and during the hot streak the Red Sox made a living moving runners and scoring without the benefit of a hit.
But the truest measure of an offense is how it performs in the clutch.
Well...
The answer right now is a big fat ZERO.
Boston went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday and is now just 3-for-37 over its last four games.
I don’t care how many times you bunt.
That just isn’t going to win many baseball games in today’s MLB.
“There Will Come a Moment When Everyone in the Ballpark Knows You’re Going to Steal a Base, and You Can’t Be Afraid to Take It.”
I’m paraphrasing Dave Roberts about something Maury Wills once told him, but I think it’s appropriate when talking about Jarren Duran.
Putting aside his personal demons and however one chooses to view his actions off the field, and occasionally on it, Duran is an incredibly gifted athlete.
Ironically, his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.
He is a tremendous athlete who plays baseball, but not a “baseball player.”
His natural athletic ability has carried him all the way to the major leagues, but his baseball instincts continue to limit just how good he can become.
On Tuesday, Duran reached first with one out in the eighth inning and the Red Sox trailing by one.
Every Red Sox fan in the ballpark, watching on television or listening on the radio, expected Duran to put that “legendary” speed to use and steal second.
Nothing.
One batter came and went without so much as an attempt.
Now there were two outs, and getting into scoring position became even more critical with Nick Sogard coming to the plate.
If we flash back to the bottom of the eighth inning on Thursday night against the White Sox, Duran found himself in almost the exact same situation. He represented the go ahead run at first with two outs and Anthony Seigler at the plate. Yet he never made a move toward second.
A few pitches later, Seigler lined a single into right field that almost certainly would have scored Duran had he been standing on second. Instead, because he remained anchored to first, it merely put runners on first and second. The inning eventually ended when Duran attempted to make up for his earlier hesitation by misreading a ball in the dirt and trying to advance to third, only to be thrown out easily.
Fast forward back to Tuesday.
Pitch one...
Nothing.
Pitch two...
Nothing.
Pitch three.
Pitch four.
Finally, on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, with the count 2-2, Duran took off.
Only to be thrown out because the pitcher used a slide step. Now, I’m not saying Duran should have expected it. But Will Middlebrooks pointed out in real time that the Blue Jays catcher rubbed his left leg with his hand before the pitch.
“That used to mean slide step when I was playing.”
The long and the short of it?
Jarren Duran has million-dollar talent...and ten-dollar baseball sense.
We Gotta Tie
The series with Toronto is only halfway over, and it feels more important than ever that Boston bounces back behind Ranger Suárez on Wednesday.
The vibes around New England will be dramatically different if the hometown nine drop two very winnable series in a row after putting together one of the most remarkable stretches of baseball the franchise has seen in years.
Image courtesy of https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/toronto-blue-jays-beat-boston-red-sox-5-3/