BOSTON — Tyler O’Neill crushed a 426-foot homer over the Green Monster but the Red Sox offense didn’t do much else in a 5-3 loss to the Rays on Monday at Fenway Park.
Boston went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base.
Wilyer Abreu led off the third inning with a double but Rays starter Zach Eflin stranded him at second. Connor Wong flied out to left field, Rafael Devers popped out to shortstop and O’Neill flied out to center field.
Jarren Duran stroked a one-out single in the fifth inning but he got thrown out trying to steal second base. It was just his second caught stealing in 11 attempts this season.
O’Neill walked on six pitches to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. But Rays righty Jason Adam then struck out Dominic Smith swinging, Vaughn Grissom looking and Romy Gonzalez swinging.
Crawford tosses 6 innings
Kutter Crawford didn’t have his best stuff. He threw 35 pitches during a three-run first inning. But he still went 6 innings while throwing a career-high 101 pitches.
Crawford allowed four runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out six. He recorded 15 swings and misses.
He threw 39 four-seam fastballs (five swings and misses), 30 cutters (four swings and misses), 29 sweepers (five swings and misses and three splitters (one swing and miss).
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Red Sox fall behind 3-0 in first
The Red Sox fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning when Crawford’s two-out walk to Harold Ramírez came back to bite him.
Amed Rosario followed with a two-run triple and Richie Palacios connected for an RBI single.
Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela fully extended in the air to try to catch Rosario’s triple but the ball deflected off the top of his glove and into right field. Right fielder Wilyer Abreu, who was backing up Rafaela, had to sprint back to his left to chase it.
O’Neill homers to tie it
Boston scored its own three runs in the bottom of the first inning to tie it. Abreu singled with one out. Devers doubled with two outs. O’Neill then crushed a 426-foot three-run homer to left field. It left his bat at 108.7 mph.
O’Neill was 7-for-44 (.159) with five doubles, six walks and 22 strikeouts in his previous 12 games.
Weissert allows a run in eighth
Greg Weissert, who hadn’t pitched since last Tuesday, hurled a scoreless seventh inning. But he then allowed the first hitters to reach in the eighth (double, walk, RBI double).
Weissert escaped without allowing any other runs. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, he struck out Richie Palacios and José Caballero both swinging, then retired Alex Jackson on a groundout to shortstop.
Tuesday’s game
The Red Sox and Rays will play the second game of their four-game series Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. Tampa righty Aaron Civale (2-3, 5.88 ERA) will start opposite Boston righty Nick Pivetta (1-2, 3.60 ERA).
