ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Red Sox were alarmingly uncompetitive against Tampa Bay righthander Drew Rasmussen for seven innings on Wednesday afternoon, striking out time after time.
One of the worst games of a bad season suddenly changed in the eighth inning when the Sox scored four runs against the Rays’ bullpen.
The reprieve was fleeting. Tampa Bay scored two more runs in the bottom of the inning and held on to beat the Sox, 7-5, before a crowd of 16,504 at Tropicana Field.
The Sox were 1-4 on their road trip and are off Thursday before starting a six-game homestand on Friday against the Rangers.
They have lost five of six overall to fall to 27-39. The Sox are 6-14 against American League East teams.
The first four hitters in the order — Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, and Willson Contreras — were 0 for 11 with 11 strikeouts against Rasmussen, who had 13 strikeouts in all and allowed two hits.
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Rasmussen (6-2) struck out eight of the first 12 batters he faced, all swinging. The righthander overmatched Sox hitters with three variations of a fastball, using a four-seam fastball, cutter, and sinker.
The Sox countered Rasmussen with rookie lefthander Jake Bennett, who was recalled from Triple-A Worcester to make the start. He allowed four runs on seven hits over five innings.
At 5-0 after seven innings, the game appeared to be over. But Rasmussen was done after 97 pitches, and the Sox rebounded against Tampa Bay’s bullpen.
Caleb Durbin homered to left field off Cole Sulser. Isiah Kiner-Falefa then drew a walk. Facing Steven Matz, Duran singled, and Rafaela followed with a 395-foot homer to left field, his sixth of the season.
Hope vanished in the bottom of the inning when light-hitting Cedric Mullins belted a two-run homer to right field off Justin Slaten.
Garrett Cleavinger pitched the ninth inning for Rays and picked up his second save despite allowing a two-out homer by Durbin. It was the first multi-home run game of his career.
With two outs, Kiner-Falefa was called out on strikes by umpire Jim Wolf. He challenged the call, and it was overturned.
That gave Andruw Monasterio a shot to extend the game, and he struck out swinging.
Rays catcher Nick Fortes was 4 for 4 with two doubles and three runs scored.
The Sox struck out 15 times, matching their season high.
Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.
