The last time the Boston Red Sox were on a three-game losing streak, it was mid-June, a full 53 days ago. They were being swept by the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a four-game losing streak that dropped them 14 games below .500. We know what transpired in the seven-plus weeks since, as the Red Sox set record after record for winning streaks and winning months and winning stretches. Since that losing streak, the Red Sox were 35-10, and felt pretty good about their chances with ace Sonny Gray on the mound on Monday.
But the Boston offense, which has struggled since putting up 13 runs on Friday night in a win against the A’s, fell silent again on Monday in a bizarre 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto. The Red Sox have scored just seven runs and batted .220 in their last three games.
Still, despite going 6.0 innings and giving up just two runs on six hits, Gray was unhappy with part of his performance.
Red Sox Allow Just 2 Runs
That was his inability to get out of the sixth inning unscathed. Gray said he could live with giving up a solo home run to third baseman Charles McAdoo in the fifth inning, but felt he should have been able to pitch the Red Sox out of trouble in the sixth. After retiring the first eight batters he faced in the game, Gray allowed two baserunners in the fourth, then allowed the homer in the fifth.
The Blue Jays broke through in the sixth with another run as Gray allowed two hits and two stolen bases in the inning.
Overall, Gray was not disappointed with his performance, but the run-scoring hit from Andres Giminez came on an 80-mph Curve on a 3-and-2 count.
Sonny Gray ‘A Little Frustrated’ by 6th Inning
Gray wasn’t happy about that, or the Red Sox loss.
As he told reporters after the game: “I thought I was OK, I would have been more pleased if I had been able to get the last out there in the sixth and kept it to one. You know, solo homer, it happens. A little frustrated that I wasn’t able to keep it to one there in the sixth, and we just got beat.
“I felt good. I felt like the first couple innings were a little smoother, then it was traffic, traffic, traffic and to be able to limit that, I thought it was OK. But I felt good when I was out there.”
Red Sox Squander Sonny Gray Gem
Gray said he was not quite sure what was going on in a strange Red Sox sequence in the seventh inning, when Boston scored its only run.
At the time, the scoreboard showed two outs for the Red Sox, who had two runners on. Both runners apparently thought that there were, indeed, two outs. but there was only one. So when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a fly out to center field, the Red Sox were awarded a run despite what was also ruled a double play as Nick Sogard was thrown out.
The sequence killed that rally, and despite having runners in scoring position in both the eighth and the ninth innings (including Jarren Duran on third with one out in the ninth), the Red Sox could not tie the game.
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