Rays 2, Red Sox 9: Swept in the cold

After two frustrating losses to the Boston Red Sox, the Rays will look to try and avoid getting swept at Fenway Park in today’s YouTube Game of the Week. Current-Ray Ryan Yarbrough takes the mound opposing former-Ray Nate Eovadi.

Yarbrough’s first was nice and clean, requiring only nine pitches. He struck out Rafael Devers on four pitches with a beautiful slider for the second out of the inning.

Nine pitches is what the inning was originally going to end at, but with Fenway Park being Fenway Park, a foul ball caught by Arozarena for the third out was interfered with by a fan and a replay review determined that it was a dead ball. Yarbrough threw two additional pitches before getting the inning-ending groundout of JD Martinez.

The Rays struck first in the top of the third. Francisco Mejia hit a one-out double to left field before Willy Adames grounded out, bringing Yoshi Tsutsugo up to the plate. Yoshi drove Mejia home with a single to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

Yarby closed out the bottom of the third with his second strikeout of the afternoon, setting down Enrique Hernandez.

The bottom of the fourth was less ideal for Yarbrough after he walked Devers to begin the inning. A one-out Bogaerts single scored Devers to tie the game up before Christian Vazquez hit a two-run home run over the Green Monster, giving Boston a 3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, the bottom of the fifth was really bad, as the Red Sox made it a 9-1 game. It was hideous and all I can say about it was thank goodness it’s only game six on the season. Here’s how Boston scored each run:

Yarbrough’s line was less than ideal, throwing 89 pitches over five innings. Yarbrough struck out two and allowed one walk. After nine hits, six earned runs were scored.

Collin McHugh entered in the bottom of the sixth and looked really good in three shutout innings of work, allowing two hits but striking out two.

If the Rays want to try and make this loss a little less ugly, it is going to take a miracle in the top of the ninth. Randy hit a leadoff double and Mike Brosseau drove him home with a two-out single, making it 9-2. Hope? Nope. Joseph Odom wasn’t able to spark the comeback, ending this one and completing Boston’s sweep of the Rays.

After six games on the season, the Rays are 2-4. That’s six games of 162, so very far from any reason to worry or really even get upset. The Rays head down to St. Petersburg and will host the New York Yankees in our home opener on Friday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 3:10 pm. Rich Hill will face off against a Yankees pitcher to be determined.