Red Sox reactions: Home struggles continue in loss to Phillies

Each game seems to bring with it more frustration for shortstop Trevor Story, who was hitless in his first two trips and dipped back down below the infamous Mendoza (.200) line before lifting himself above the mark with a single in the seventh. Story — and the Red Sox – have been through this before, of course, as the veteran slumped mightily in May last year. But a year ago, Story had a relatively good April; this year, that isn’t the case. The Sox could sit Story, and perhaps shift Marcelo Mayer over to short. But that would require either moving Ceddanne Rafaela to the infield, or playing someone like Andruw Monestario every day.

On the bright side, whatever issues were dogging Brayan Bello appear to have been corrected. After allowing a run on two hits in the second, his first inning of work after coming in following an opener. It was his second strong outing after turning things around in Detroit last week. Bello was excellent, pitching into the eighth inning without another run. Bello’s outing continued a streak of strong starts from the Boston rotation — not that it’s made much impact in the won-loss column. The Sox have the second best ERA in the American League behind only Tampa Bay, but are just .500 for the month.

Lefty reliever Tyler Samaniego saw his scoreless streak extended to 13 straight games when he recorded two outs in the eighth; he’s yet to allow a run in a Red Sox uniform. That streak moved Samaniego into second place in franchise history for pitchers’ scoreless streaks who began their career with the Red Sox. He had previously been tied with Austin Maddox (12 in 2017) and now sits behind only Robby Scott (14 games in 2016-17).

If the Red Sox want to continue with an opener in front of Bello, perhaps it would be wise to choose someone other than Jovani Moran. Moran was tagged for a solo homer from Kyle Schwarber in his one inning of work. This, after he allowed two runs in his last assignment as an opener vs. Detroit. The expectation is that an opener is going to get his team off to a clean start; otherwise, what’s the point?

The two teams will continue their series Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. with a pitching matchup that will feature righty Sonny Gray (3-1, 3.54) vs. rookie righty Andrew Painter (1-4, 6.89).