ANAHEIM, Calif. — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium.
1) In a loss as bad as the Red Sox have suffered this season, the Sox twice were done in by Angels second baseman Christian Moore (who was the eighth overall pick in last July’s draft). First, he homered off Greg Weissert in the eighth to tie the game at 1-1. Then, after the Red Sox had gone ahead in the top of the 10th on a Marcelo Mayer RBI single, Moore homered again, this time off lefty Justin Wilson with the automatic runner on board. The walk-off shot, which barely left Angel Stadium, handed Boston its fourth loss in a row.
The Red Sox finished the first half of their season a game under .500 at 40-41. They are 9-19 in one-run games and 5-9 in extra-inning games. They are winless in six extra-inning road games.
2) If you have to have a three-game losing streak, you might as well have someone like Garrett Crochet on the mound helping you to end it. Crochet did his part to fill the role of stopper Tuesday night, tossing seven shutout innings and allowing just three hits. From the third through the sixth, Crochet retired 12 of 13 and completely dominated the Angels. His biggest challenge came in the seventh when a fielder’s choice and infield single gave Los Angeles two runners on with two out. But Crochet dug in and got pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud to pop up to first baseman Romy Gonzalez in foul territory, stranding both runners. Crochet fanned 10 while walking three and throwing 103 pitches, 67 of them strikes.
Crochet finished the first half of his season with a 2.06 ERA and 135 strikeouts in 109 ⅓ innings over 17 starts. Yet the Red Sox are only 10-7 in his outings.
3) Mayer didn’t have a lot of chances in his first appearance at second base, but he handled what he had. In the second inning, with a runner on first and no out, Taylor Ward hit a grounder right at shortstop Trevor Story. Story flipped the feed to Mayer covering, and though it may have looked a little unconventional, Mayer took the feed and fired a slightly off-balance throw to first. Romy Gonzalez picked the throw on one hop to complete the double play. In the seventh, Mayer made a terrific play to make a diving stop on a ground ball from Jo Adell, saving the ball from going into the outfield. But as he tried to transfer the ball from his glove to his throwing hand, he juggled it, allowing Adell to reach.
4) Mayer also supplied the only real offense of the night for the Red Sox, leading to both of their runs. Leading off against starter Tyler Anderson, Mayer hooked a ball down the first base line and into the spacious right field corner. Running hard out of the box, Mayer made it into third base standing up with his first career triple. From there, he showed off his baserunning prowess — Nate Eaton hit a fly ball down the right field line which Gustavo Campero caught. Mayer tagged and headed for the plate and the throw from Campero was on target and appeared to beat him. But Mayer made a nice slide into home and avoided the tag of Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
Mayer then drove in automatic runner Ceddanne Rafaela on the first pitch from lefty Reid Detmers in the top of the 10th, putting Boston up 2-1. In all, Mayer was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run; it was his first three-hit game in the majors.
5) The Red Sox bullpen, which saw a consecutive scoreless inning streak of nearly 20 snapped over the weekend in San Francisco continues to struggle. On Sunday, they allowed the Giants to pull ahead late and on Monday, the Angels had a four-run eighth. Then on Tuesday, Weissert was entrusted with a 1-0 lead but allowed a one-out solo homer to No. 9 hitter Moore to tie the game and cost Crochet the win. Weissert has hit the wall after pitching a lot in May and early June.
6) Red Sox staff and support people are impressed with the athleticism of Eaton. In the fourth inning, he flashed some of that to go along with some good baseball instincts. The Angels had Ward on second with two down when O’Hoppe ripped a single to left. The ball was hit hard enough that the Angels held up Ward as he rounded third as Eaton cut the throw on the lip of the grass near third. Ward had taken a big turn and Eaton ran straight to him and slapped the tag on him before Ward could get back to the bag.
7) The Red Sox had a chance to add on to their slim 1-0 lead in the top of the seventh, but failed. Jarren Duran led with a hustle double, but with the object of getting Duran over to third with less than two outs, both Trevor Story and Ceddanne Rafaela both grounded out before Mayer took a called third strike, stranding Duran at second.
8) On Wednesday afternoon, the Red Sox will wrap up their nine-game West Coast road trip with the final game of their series with the Angels. It will be RHP Richard Fitts (0-3, 4.71 ERA) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (2-6, 3.01) at 4:07 p.m. The Red Sox will then fly home early Wednesday evening, enjoy the day off Thursday and start a six-game homestand Friday with the first of three against division opponent Toronto.
Boston is 3-5 so far on its trip to Seattle, San Francisco and Anaheim. The Sox will try to avoid a sweep against Kikuchi, who allowed three runs in five innings in an Angels win on June 3 at Fenway.
