The Boston Red Sox entered a clean slate against the Arizona Diamondbacks, opening up an eight-game homestand at Fenway Park with the clock ticking down for teams across MLB to rush toward securing a postseason spot.
Boston, amid a mediocre 32-game stretch since the MLB All-Star break, did itself zero justice during Friday night’s 12-2 lopsided defeat to Arizona.
“Bats went cold. I had a couple of key at-bats with guys on base, didn’t get the job done so took a lot of credit for the offense stalling out so that’s on me for sure,” outfielder Rob Refsnyder told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I don’t know what our record is at home, but we’ve been playing well on the road and we gotta step it up at home; especially (since) the fans are still coming out and cheering us on and the energy’s been great. So yeah, we owe the fans a lot better.”
The Diamondbacks opened the night with a quick-and-easy two runs against Red Sox starter Brayan Bello, to which the offense responded with a run to split the early lead in half by the end of the first inning. However, the firepower that produced 12 runs in Baltimore against the Orioles and six runs in Houston against the Astros within the past week, didn’t show up in front of the hopeful Fenway faithful, and it cost the team.
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Boston squandered an opportunity to secure a chance at a sweep — its first since the Midsummer Classic — or at least an early head start toward a series win against the reigning National League champion Diamondbacks. Instead, Arizona pummeled the Red Sox offensively, most notably when Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suárez launched a 349-foot grand slam off Boston reliever Josh Winckowski to extend a three-run lead to a seven-run lead in the seventh inning.
“We just gotta be ready for tomorrow,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s not a lack of preparation. It’s not that we’re preparing different on the road, but like I said, we gotta figure it out here and start playing good baseball at home.”
Here are more notes from Friday night’s Diamondbacks-Red Sox game:
— Boston’s home record this season dropped to 29-33. The Red Sox are also 4-8 in their last 12 games played at Fenway Park, and 3-8 overall in homestand-opening matchups.
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“We stunk it up tonight so hopefully we can regroup and play a good game tomorrow,” Refsnyder said, per NESN.
— Bello pitched 5 1/3 innings against Arizona, but a three-run sixth inning destroyed the right-hander’s quality performance. Bello was charged with allowing five earned runs off seven hits and four walks, dropping his record to 11-5. The 25-year-old has gone 4-4 with a 5.54 ERA in 12 starts at Fenway Park this season.
“Obviously, I feel a little bit frustrated because I wanted to give my team the chance to win tonight,” Bello said through translator Carlos Villoria Benitez, per NESN. “But we’ll come back tomorrow and win the game tomorrow.”
— Recently signed left-hander Rich Hill made his first minor league assignment start for Triple-A Worcester at Polar Park on Friday night as well, pitching two scoreless and hitless innings while striking out two batters.
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— Boston didn’t lose or gain any ground in the American League wild card standings, still trialing the Minnesota Twins by 3 1/2 games for the final postseason spot.
— The Red Sox have allowed 10-plus runs to opponents on 11 instances this season and dropped to 21-20 in interleague matchups.
— Boston and Arizona will continue the three-game series Saturday. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 4:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
