With a chance to sweep Mariners, Red Sox let another winnable game slip away
SEATTLE — Three thousand miles away, at the absolute other end of Interstate 90, the Red Sox fell into a familiar fate Sunday afternoon.
They lost to the Mariners, 3-1, on a day when the offense couldn’t gain any traction against righthander Logan Gilbert and the Seattle bullpen — a dud of a finale after the Sox had taken the first two games of the series.
In the bigger picture of their disappointing season, they failed to convert another winnable game at a time when they can ill afford to do so. The Red Sox, 31-44, have not strung together more than three consecutive wins this season, and even that low bar they have not reached in a month.
Sure, they won this series against the club leading an underwhelming American League West. But it’s not clear that that is good enough — particularly when the sweep was available. Monday begins the six-week countdown to the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
The Sox totaled five hits: two from Caleb Durbin, three from everybody else.
The Red Sox managed just one run in 6⅓ innings against Gilbert, who racked up eight strikeouts (and 15 swing-and-misses). They had chances, though, for more.
Nate Eaton blasted a tying home run — into the second deck in left field — in the third inning. It was his first long ball of the year (in his seventh plate appearance).
Ensuing near-opportunities short-circuited after the Sox put the leadoff batters on base each inning from the fourth through seventh.
In the fourth, Mickey Gasper drew a leadoff walk but Willson Contreras grounded into a double play. In the fifth, Durbin had a leadoff single but was picked off first base. In the sixth, Eaton had a leadoff walk — Gilbert looking quite careful the second time around — but was erased on a line-drive double play to right.
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It was not clear if Eaton misread the ball and thought it was a sure hit or if he forgot the number of outs.
In the seventh, Gasper reached again, on first baseman Josh Naylor’s throwing error. He was stranded at third base.
Lefthander Payton Tolle, meanwhile, grinded through a quality start, giving up three runs across six innings. He had a season-low two strikeouts.
Of his 79 pitches, 77 were a variant of a fastball (four-seamer, sinker, cutter). He also mixed in just two curveballs.
In a series of loud batted balls in the early innings, the only one that hurt Tolle was Dominic Canzone’s home run in the second. Seattle tacked on a run in the fifth when, with two outs, Weston Wilson singled, stole second, and scored on Cole Young’s single.
A pair of singles, from Julio Rodríguez and old friend Rob Refsnyder, put runners on the corners with one out in the sixth. It was Refsnyder’s fourth hit in 58 at-bats in home games this year.
Tolle limited the damage in that jam to just one run, though, on Canzone’s RBI ground out.
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