Boston Red Sox Bullpen Falters in Loss to Tampa Bay

Boston Red Sox Bullpen Falters in Loss to Tampa Bay

BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox fell to 16-22 on the season when the Tampa Bay Rays snapped their three-game winning streak on Thursday night with an 8-4 win at Fenway Park. It was an unusually shaky night for the Boston bullpen, which entered the night as one of the best in baseball.

Rookie lefty Jake Bennett got the start for Boston as they kicked off a seven-game homestand riding the momentum from their first sweep of the 2026 season in Detroit. After breezing through the first inning, Bennett ran into trouble in the second, allowing three runs on three hits to give the Rays a 3-0 lead. The Boston offense quickly responded with three of their own in the bottom of the second to even things up at 3-3.

Bennett settled down nicely, retiring nine of the next 10 Tampa hitters into the sixth inning. After allowing a leadoff double to Rays star third baseman Junior Caminero, Bennett struck out Tampa first baseman Jonathan Aranda for the first out of the sixth before interim manager Chad Tracy turned to Greg Weissert to finish off the inning.

Weissert has struggled mightily since a shutdown inning in the Red Sox Marathon Monday win over the Tigers. Those struggles continued as Weissert failed to record an out, allowing two singles and walking a batter as Tampa took a two-run lead, 5-3. The right-hander gave way to rookie , who recorded the final two outs of the inning.