The Red Sox lost to the Braves 3-2 in extra innings, with Mike Yastrzemski walking off his hometown team. This marks the fourth loss in six games for Boston despite showing competitive spirit.
Key points
Red Sox lost to Braves 3-2 in extra innings
Mike Yastrzemski delivered a walk-off hit
Boston had chances to win but failed to score
This is the fourth loss in six games for the Red Sox
Red SoxBravesMike YastrzemskiMarcelo Mayer
ATLANTA — Instant reactions as the Red Sox (18-26) claw back but lose to the ascendant Braves, 3-2, in extra innings as Mike Yastrzemski walks off his hometown team:
1) For the sixth game in a row, the Red Sox showed some fight in a close game. For the fourth time in those six, they lost.
Mike Yastrzemski walked off the Red Sox in the 10th, ripping an opposite-field liner into the gap off Tyler Samaniego that plated the automatic runner and was ruled a double. The Andover native — and son of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski — entered as a sub and delivered his team a win after the Braves blew a 2-0 lead.
Boston had chances to take the lead in the ninth and 10th but Andruw Monasterio (struck out in the ninth with two men on) and Mickey Gasper (lined out in the 10th with runners on the corners) couldn’t get runs across.
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3) Atlanta’s red-hot lineup built a 2-0 lead with two homers off starter Connelly Early. In the first, Drake Baldwin took Early deep to dead center, barely clearing the wall (and Ceddanne Rafaela’s glove on a robbery attempt) on Early’s seventh offering. To lead off the fourth, Michael Harris II won a left-on-left battle by crushing a 419-foot blast for his eighth of the year.
4) The Red Sox offense found a new avenue of frustration: running into outs. It happened on three occasions early against talented righty Spencer Strider, erasing some early scoring threats.
In the first inning, Jarren Duran worked a leadoff walk, then was picked off first base. In the fourth, Gasper’s leadoff single was erased when he tried to steal second and was easily thrown out (by multiple steps) by former Red Sox catcher Sandy León. The third instance came when Ceddanne Rafaela ripped a leadoff double in the fifth, then was gunned down trying to steal third.
The Red Sox clearly went into the game with a plan to be aggressive on the basepaths and it backfired greatly.
5) Outside of leadoff hitters getting on base, it was more of the same from the stagnant Red Sox offense, which has now scored two or fewer runs in 20 of 44 (45.5%) games. The only damage before Mayer’s homer? No. 2 hitter (and sparkplug) Gasper scored Carlos Narváez with an RBI single off lefty Dylan Lee in the sixth.
6) Homers have been an issue for Early in recent weeks. After starting his major league career by not allowing a home run in his first 39 ⅓ innings, Early has now allowed seven in his last 35 frames (six starts).
Early was effective outside of the two blasts, allowing five hits and striking out six batters in five innings. He has been very good this season — as a 3.21 ERA through nine starts would suggest. But he has only gone more than 5 ⅓ innings in four of those outings.
7) A particularly ugly sequence on a tough night? Right after Gasper was thrown out by León in the fourth, a dejected Willson Contreras grounded out to third and barely ran to first as the Braves recorded the final out of the inning. He was out by about half the baseline.
8) With Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock each having pitched on back-to-back days at home, Chad Tracy had to cobble together the late part of the game. First was Greg Weissert, who retired all four batters he faced. Then came Jovaní Morán, who got five outs (and had three strikeouts).
9) Duran’s offensive woes continued with an 0-for-3 night that extended his hitless streak to 18 at-bats (0-for-18). Going back a few more days, he is 3-for-37 (.081) with 12 strikeouts and two walks in a nine-game stretch dating back to May 5.
10) Third baseman Caleb Durbin had an eventful night on defense, making a series of impressive defensive plays and committing an error on a José Azócar single in the fourth. Durbin’s unconventional-yet-effective way of playing his position remains one of the more entertaining parts of the Red Sox season to this point.
12) The Braves have the best record in baseball at 31-14 and are now 15-7 at home. If the Red Sox were going to steal a game in the series, it might have been Friday’s. Now, they’ll look to avoid losing the series with one more loss.
Any good feelings from last week’s three-game sweep in Detroit have been erased by a 2-5 record since.
13) Left-hander Payton Tolle (1-2, 2.78 ERA) will be tasked with snapping Boston’s two-game losing streak Saturday night with first pitch set for 7:15 p.m. ET. The Braves will send breakout star Bryce Elder (4-1, 1.81 ERA) to the mound.
