The Red Sox had every opportunity to put the Colorado Rockies away.
They had old friend Connor Seabold on the ropes in the first inning, tagging the ex-Red Sox hurler for three straight singles out of the gate before squandering the prime scoring opportunity and coming away with nothing.
They took a 2-1 lead on a Christian Arroyo solo shot in the seventh, only to immediately allow Colorado to tie it right back up the following inning.
Rafael Devers put a charge into what would have been the go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth, but Rockies outfielder Nolan Jones made an unbelievable catch at the bullpen wall to keep the ball in the yard and the game tied.
Finally, with two outs and the extra-innings ghost runner still at second, Nick Pivetta loaded the bases and walked in the go-ahead run. With a steady rain devolving into a complete deluge, the Rockies added another on a Triston Casas error at first and the grounds crew came out to stop the action with the Red Sox trailing by two in the top of the 10th.
Nearly an hour and a half later, the Red Sox wrapped up the evening in fitting fashion, with Alex Verdugo grounding into the game ending double play to cap off the dispiriting 4-3 loss.
As has happened so often, the Red Sox let another game slip away thanks to sloppy play and ill-timed miscues. They also squandered another gem by starting pitcher James Paxton, who was excellent once again.
Paxton pitched into the seventh inning and allowed only one run on five hits and a walk while striking out eight. His lone run was unearned, coming when Kiké Hernández committed his 14th error of the season on a play that would have ended the fourth inning.
Outside of the first three batters Seabold also had a great night for Colorado. Starting with the Devers double play and Adam Duvall strikeout to escape the bases-loaded first inning jam, Seabold retired 14 of the next 16 batters he faced into the sixth.
Devers grounder to the pitcher was particularly frustrating, given that it came on the first pitch of the at bat and resulted in both the lead runner at home and Devers himself being erased, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora said afterwards that he appreciated the aggressive approach.
“He was overly aggressive with Cole and he hit it out of the ballpark to left field. That’s the beauty of Raffy, right?” Cora said, referring to Devers’ home run in New York over the weekend. “It’s one of those where it looks bad because he hit a ground ball to the pitcher but the other day when he swung at the changeup he hit it out of the ballpark and everyone was praising him. It’s baseball.”
Seabold wound up allowing one run over six innings, with the Red Sox finally getting to him after Alex Verdugo walked and Justin Turner tied the game with an opposite field RBI double.
Following Arroyo’s seventh inning homer, Colorado tied the game in the eighth after Jurickson Profar doubled and came around to score on an Elias Diaz RBI single up the middle off Josh Winckowski. The Rockies eventually loaded the bases before lefty Brennan Bernardino came on and delivered by striking out Jones to end the threat.
The Red Sox got their last best chance in the bottom of the ninth when Arroyo doubled with two outs to put the winning run in scoring position, but Boston couldn’t get him in as Daniel Bard, the former Red Sox reliever who made it back to the big leagues after seven years in baseball purgatory and was making his first appearance at Fenway Park since 2013, got Connor Wong to ground out to force extra innings.
Then the rain came, both figuratively and literally, and put a damper on what could have been a satisfying night at Fenway Park. When the clouds finally lifted the Red Sox got a run back on a Rob Refsnyder RBI single to score the extra-innings ghost runner, but Verdugo’s double play nipped the rally in the bud.
With the loss Boston falls to 33-34. They will be back Tuesday for a 7:10 p.m. first pitch.
