With the top of the Minnesota lineup due up, Tracy turned to Garrett Whitlock, their top setup man. He typically handles the eighth inning. This was the earliest he had entered a game since July. Maybe, though, he could record four outs against the Twins’ best batters to get the ball to his late-inning compadres.
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But Austin Martin lined a tying double to left field, and Brooks Lee followed with a tiebreaking two-run single, also to left.
On the latter play, Jarren Duran’s throw was in plenty of time to cut down the second runner, Martin, but catcher Carlos Narváez dropped the ball — which loomed large when the Sox went on to lose by just a run, another gut punch in a series and season full of them.
“You like [Guerrero] for anything,” Tracy said. “And then with Whit, the hope was … send him back out for the seventh. And it just didn’t work out.”
Playing through a steady, cold rain for 3 hours, 22 minutes, the Red Sox had multiple shots at a comeback — including in a chaotic bottom of the ninth. But they wound up getting swept by the Twins, who took five of six in the season series.
Boston Red Sox fans sing in the rain during the playing of “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway Park.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
The Sox are 22-30, matching their season worst at eight games below .500. And they are 8-17 at Fenway Park, the worst home record in the majors. Whatever fleeting momentum they built in Kansas City last week dissipated over the weekend.
“To get swept right here definitely hurts. We feel it,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said.
Sonny Gray (four innings, three runs) and Bailey Ober (five innings, four runs) slogged through the soggy early portions of the game.
The teams combined for five hits that produced or broke a tie in the first four innings — including Masataka Yoshida’s first home run of the year and Willson Contreras’s 11th.
“Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Absolutely brutal [conditions],” Gray said. “It is what it is. It was brutal for everyone.”
His early exit presented Tracy with a problem: How to navigate 15 more outs with a slim lead?
The first answer was lefthander Danny Coulombe, the only reliever signed by the Red Sox to a major league contract ($1 million) before the season. He tossed a scoreless fifth in his return from the injured list.
But Guerrero and Whitlock failed to find success in the sixth. Whitlock said he wasn’t surprised to be called on unusually early.
“I’m always just trying to be ready whenever,” he said. “It’s not like I’m looking at [a situation] and being, ‘Oh, OK, this is going to be me,’ or anything like that. I’m just trying to always be ready whenever.”
That was the biggest twist, but not the last. After the Red Sox stranded a pair of runners in the eighth, they put their first two runners on in the ninth, too.
With one out, Kiner-Falefa blasted a breaking ball from Yoendrys Gómez high and deep to left-center, inducing opposite conclusions from two key people involved.
Kiner-Falefa thought it was a walkoff three-run home run, so he started to walk toward first base.
Minnesota Twins catcher Victor Caratini tags out Boston Red Sox catcher Connor Wong during the ninth inning at Fenway Park.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Connor Wong, representing the potential tying run, wasn’t so sure and only meandered toward second, as if the ball might be caught.
“I thought I got it, honestly,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I thought I did it.”
Reality was the exact middle point: The ball went off the middle of the Green Monster.
Nick Sogard, who led off the inning with a triple, scored easily, cutting the deficit to one. But when the delayed Wong was waved home by interim third-base coach Chad Epperson, the Twins nailed the tricky, wet relay: left fielder Trevor Larnach to shortstop Ryan Kreidler to catcher Victor Caratini.
Wong was out at the plate, a call upheld upon review.
“I understand the sentiment: soaking wet, raining, the ball is wet, and it’s going to skip on the throw,” Tracy said. “So I definitely understand [Epperson’s decision to send Wong].”
With the rain falling seemingly harder than at any other point, there was more: Gómez slipped off the mound, balking Kiner-Falefa to third base. Then he hit Duran with a pitch.
Minnesota manager Derek Shelton brought in Travis Adams to face Ceddanne Rafaela. Adams threw one pitch to record his first career save, inducing a flyout.
For the Sox, neither the experimentation nor the desperation worked. It may well induce more of both in the days and weeks ahead as they try to save their season.
“We know we need to get the big hit. And hopefully it switches,” Kiner-Falefa said. “We’ve been saying that for a while, though.”
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
