Boston Red Sox Tampa Bay Rays: JD Martinez Came Through with the Hit

After a cruel start to their season, the Red Sox look excited in these last two games. Monday was an eruption. Tuesday was not much, but it was a phenomenal game. It features some amazing pitch performances, controversial calls, great plays on both sides and some great hits from the Red Sox. Pick it all up, then you score a 12-innings win with a chance to sweep tomorrow. We’ll take it, people, we’ll take it.

With the first win of the season, the Red Sox were looking for a fourth good start to complete the first turn through their turn, with Martín Pérez taking the ball on Tuesday. The Southpaw have been very reliable this past season, if not exactly amazing, and he has performed where he left off here. The Rays series can be tough to tackle because they are very disciplined and can make guys work, and things were definitely not smooth for Pérez. It is said that there was more good than bad, with the help of his catcher who did a hell of a job all night on border posts.

The first innings quickly started with a few outs, including the Southpaw’s first blow of the night, but his defense let him down a bit. On a pop-up in a shallow right field, the ball found nobody’s land between a seemingly confused Hunter Renfroe and Christian Arroyo, who both dropped the ball and bounced on the stands for a double ground line. Pérez worked the man into a points standings, but came out unscathed.

He will return for the second time with a lead in hand – we will return to that within a minute – and he easily holds it with a 1-2-3 second. Unfortunately, she gets into a bit of trouble on the night in the third. There he gets a shot to start the innings, but then releases a few hits that have been pushed through by a walk, and loads the base with just one. Pérez did get a weak line to almost sneak out of the innings, but old friend Manny Margot brought home a couple with a base shot in the right field, and just like that, the Rays took a 2-1 lead.

Pérez, to his credit, did not allow it to snowball. He did hit another batter in turn to reload the bases, but he was able to escape the jam with a big blow to keep the damage at two. He then allowed a lead single in the fourth before stepping out six straight to keep the rays at work for two to five overs.

The bad news for the Red Sox is that they had to act against Tyler Glasnow on the other side, and if he’s going on, he’s one of the toughest pitchers to hit in all of baseball. He was going on in this one. That said, the Red Sox did get on the board early, as indicated above. Christian Arroyo, who surprisingly took the lead for this one, started things off well with a lead-double. He moved up to third place with two out on the ground, and Glasnow made a mistake that got the backstop, allowing Arroyo to come home and give Boston the early 1-0 lead.

This was unfortunately not a sign of things to come, as Glasnow ended up in an area after a first hiccup. Boston is in second place in order and then only passes a Franchy Cordero double in the third. They did get a better chance in the fourth time when Xander Bogaerts hit a one-time base hit and Vázquez ran a two-pointer, but they were stranded there to keep the deficit at 2-1. That score would keep the fifth, as well as the Sox in order.

So that brought us to the top of the sixth, with Pérez coming back to start the innings. However, he was not long for the game and issued a lead to left-hander Brandon Lowe before Austin Brice entered. In all, Pérez threw five innings, allowing the two runs on five hits (one double and four singles), two runs and six strokes.

As for Brice, his night did not start well, as Willy Adames put one of the Monsters in the first round against the Red Sox judge. Fortunately, even though Lowe came in third, Adames made a mental mistake. He thought it was running away from the bat and barely running off the line, which resulted in him being caught between first and second and giving the Red Sox a run. After a pop-up, Brice was suddenly one away from the refugee with the shortage still one. He could not come out the last time, with Joey Wendle completing a good bat with a clean base in the middle, making it a 3-1 ball game.

While the Red Sox searched for their answer, they rather made two quick innings to start the sixth. However, Bogaerts kept the innings alive with a four-step walk, and then Rafael Devers finally got his first hit of the season and hit a base hit in the right field. This set Vázquez in motion for a big blow with men on the corners and two out. He couldn’t get it right while going down on a high fast ball to strand the runners and keep the backlog at two.

Hirokazu Sawamura was there for the seventh, and it was a strange turn. He struck a batter with one out, but Alex Cora challenged it to keep it going. Then Austin Meadows worked a long bat that ended on a walk. And then it hit real strange when Margot hit a ball to the deep left field. Franchy Cordero caught it on the wall, or so he thought. Randy Arozarena, who started in second place, does not think so and comes to score. Cordero throws it in again to double Arozarena. The play was revised, and the referees decided that he had indeed made the catch and ended the inning, down to the rays of the rays. One playing corner made it look like it was not like a catch, but another one made it look like a catch. Ultimately, it’s just the referee’s opinion that matters, and that’s Boston’s way here.

The Red Sox have now tried to get the bats going with Glasnow. They had Cody Reed on the hill to start things off, and Hunter Renfroe gained positive momentum with a big one-time double play. That put Kiké Hernández on the board as a pinch for Cordero, but he went down swinging. Arroyo was then the last chance in the innings, with the Rays going to fetch Pete Fairbanks from the bulls. The latter won this fight and thus got a strike to strand the runner on the second point and hold a 3-1 ball game.

After Darwinzon Hernandez continued to struggle with control but managed to circumvent a few walks, Boston still has six outs to play with. They had the core of the order to start the eighth, with Fairbanks still going for the rays, and Alex Verdugo started them right by putting a double in the right midfield. JD Martinez liked the way it looked, and he followed it up with a double of his own to make it a 3-2 ball game, still with no one out. After a Bogaerts drop, Devers hit one on a line, but it hooked Margot off for the second time. The only problem is that Martinez thought there were already two heats, so he was about third at this point, which made the Rays an easy doubling to end the innings. It was an inexcusable mistake by Martinez.

Matt Barnes scored a perfect ninth place, which includes some results, giving Boston their last chance to force this one at least into extras. Diego Castillo called on Tampa to try and close the one, and the Red Sox quickly welcomed him. More specifically, Vázquez welcomed him by hitting a moon shot in the Monster Seats on a 0-2 field, and just like that we were all tied up. That was all they could get, but it was enough to push this one into extras.

Here I remind you that the extra innings rule for 2020 remains in place this year, meaning the Rays started first place out of tenth with a runner up in second place. On the hill, Barnes was back for a second innings, something he has struggled with in the past. He did not struggle this time, once again threw a perfect turn and in the process struck a few again.

Now the Red Sox had to get that free runner home to claim a victory. Arroyo started the innings and tried to drop a bundle, but he still managed to move the runner up with a ground to the right side. Hernández was thus out on the third base with one out, and the Rays decided to walk Verdugo, which gave Martinez the chance to make up his mistake on the base earlier. He did smoke one, but Willy Adames made a very nice dive stop with the infield in. Boston still had runners in second and third place, but now two out and leave it to Bogaerts. He could not get the ball in play, and the elimination moved the one to the eleventh.

There it was Tanner Houck who came out of the cage for a relief before being sent Thursday. Adames immediately came to him and smoked a double-wire in the left field to give Tampa the 4-3 lead. After a bundle moved the runner-up to third place, Houck kept the Rays in check with a few times that the backlog was just one.

In their attempt to get back, they took action against old friend Jeffrey Springs. At his very first pitch, Devers tore one to the left for a base hit, and just like that we were all tied up again. For a second straight frame, that was all they would get, and we would go for another turn.

In the twelfth time, Phillips Valdez got the call for Boston, and after a quick first exit, he threw one to the backstop, which enabled Mike Zunino to sit up to third place. That wild pitch would be expensive because the runner was not in contact and while Bogaerts stops a starting spot in the middle, he plays no game, and the rays jump 5-4 ahead.

So the Red Sox are once again looking for at least one run to keep this game going, or better yet two runs to go home with the win. After two quick outings, the innings came alive when Verdugo was hit by a field, leaving things to Martinez. The first pitch for him would come out at the backstop and move the runners to second and third. Martinez then came through, hitting one in the right field outside the reach of a diving Arozarena, bringing in both runners and walking down it.

The Red Sox and Rays will finish their series here on Wednesday, while Boston is looking for a playoff in a YouTube game starting at 1:05 p.m. ET. Nathan Eovaldi will go to Boston while Ryan Yarbrough gets the ball for the rays.

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