Maybe we can blame these errors on early season jitters? No? Okay then.
The Rays fall to 2 games under .500 and finish their road trip 1-6 after giving up 4 runs and 9 hits and 1 fateful error that would decide the game. Tampa Bay would compile more hits at 11, but few of them were timely, as they only had 3 runs.
1st inning
The Rays would strike early in the 1st inning, putting the first three batters on base. Dickerson and Kiermaier would score two groundouts by Miller and Souza. Logan Morrison would walk to load the bases for Weeks Jr. , but he struck out swinging to end the threat.
Boston would respond with a run of their own, off of a Hanley Ramirez single to score Dustin Pedroia, but Snell limited the damage. Rays are up 2-1
The inning which shall not be named
Derek Norris started the 2nd inning on a good note, with a leadoff double, but the Rays couldn’t capitalize.
Snell came on for the second inning with guns a-blazing. He got Mitch Moreland and Chris Young to strike out swinging. He then gave up a single to Sandy Leon, but didn’t let that faze him, as he got Marco Hernandez to ground out right to Tim Beckham, who threw it to Brad Miller at 2nd for the force-out, who then dropped the ball and everyone was safe. Even Snell thought the inning was over, as he started to walk to the dugout, thinking that a routine ground ball would be an easy out.
.@RaysBaseball's Brad Miller on 2nd-inning error: "Just went in, came right back out." #MLB #Rays pic.twitter.com/5QF1B3RZiR
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) April 17, 2017
The inning was far from over.
Snell, after mentally thinking the inning was done, proceeded to walk Pedroia to load the bases. Andrew Benintendi singled off a deadly Snell slider to score Leon and Hernandez. Betts squeezed a ground ball past Beckham at shortstop to score Pedroia, and now the Red Sox are quickly up 4-2. Snell walked Ramirez on 4 pitches, and loaded the bases with Xander Bogaerts. Thankfully, Snell had decided enough was enough and came up in a big spot to strike out Bogaerts looking.
The rest of the game
Snell seemed to settle in after the 2nd, mixing his delivery between the set and stretch, even mid AB. The Rays would have runners in scoring position in the 3rd, 6th and 7th inning, but only were able to bring across 1 run off a Souza single to score Beckham. Rays would end the game 3 for 15 with RISP. Snell’s final line was 5.0 IP, 4 R (1 ER), 5 Ks and 2 BB.
Wright would last six innings, only giving up 3 R (1 ER), 4 Ks and 1 BB. Robbie Ross Jr, Ben Taylor, and Heath Hembree would bridge the gap to Craig Kimbrel. Boston’s bullpen would give up 0 runs, 2 hits, 7 Ks and 0 BB in 3 innings to seal the win.
Hunter came on to relive Snell in the 6th inning, and only gave up 1 hit and struck out 1. We also got our first Chase Whitley sighting, who went 2 innings only giving up 1 hit and 1 BB.
Final Score: Red Sox 4, Rays 3
Rays travel back home to take on the Tigers at the Trop. Young phenom Michael Fulmer takes the hill for Detroit, while Matt Andriese gets the start for the Rays. First pitch is at 7:10pm, so get your prayers in before then.