BOSTON — Instant reactions as the Red Sox (68-59) suffer one of their most crushing losses of 2025, leaving 13 men on base as the Orioles sweep a quick two-game series with a 4-3, 11-inning win in which Boston squandered late opportunity after late opportunity:
1) It didn’t take Nathaniel Lowe very long to welcome himself to Boston. With the Red Sox down, 3-1, in the ninth, Lowe — in his first Red Sox start — laced a no-doubt, two-run missile off Orioles righty Yaramil Hiraldo to tie the game. It went 109.5 mph off the bat and plated Romy Gonzalez, who worked a walk to start the ninth.
That glory was just momentary for the Red Sox, who lost a crusher, falling on an RBI groundout from rookie Samuel Basallo that traveled 13 feet in front of catcher Connor Wong. The Sox were a staggering 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, leaving 13 men on base. In the final four innings, Boston squandered three bases-loaded opportunities and left 10 men.
2) The 11th-inning sequence is one that’ll leave a bad taste in the mouths of the Red Sox. Trailing by one against righty Corbin Martin, who entered with a 6.75 ERA, the Sox failed to push a run across to tie the game.
Speedy pinch-runner Nate Eaton took third on a Connor Wong sacrifice bunt, but curiously didn’t try to score on a mildly deep Roman Anthony fly ball to center fielder Colton Cowser that could have been a game-tying sacrifice fly. The Red Sox, recognizing Cowser’s strong arm, decided not to send Eaton, though the throw went off-line. Alex Bregman then popped out to end the game.
3) Lowe delivered a rare big hit on a night when the Red Sox squandered big opportunity after big opportunity. In the eighth, they loaded the bases with no outs before Rico Garcia — a 31-year-old on his third team of 2025 — came in and struck out Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida to complete the great escape and elicit boos from the Fenway faithful. After the Lowe homer, Hiraldo completely lost the strike zone with three straight two-out walks, but Trevor Story grounded out to send it to extras.
The 10th inning saw Abraham Toro ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. Boston kept finding ways to not score.
4) With the Red Sox staring at the possibility of losing their third straight game to a team with a record below .500, Alex Cora didn’t mess around. Walker Buehler had the shortest leash of any Red Sox starter so far this season — and the aggressiveness backfired, putting Boston in an early hole.
Cora got lefty Justin Wilson warming with runners on base in the fourth inning, then pulled Buehler with no outs in the fifth at just 75 pitches. The idea was to have Wilson — who dominated lefties — face Gunnar Henderson with two on and no outs. Henderson lined out, but Ryan Mountcastle (RBI single) and Colton Cowser (RBI double) got to Wilson and turned a 1-0 Red Sox lead into a 2-1 Orioles advantage.
Greg Weissert then came in and gifted Baltimore another run with a wild pitch that glanced off Connor Wong’s mask. The score stayed that way until Lowe’s homer.
5) It’s hard to envision a pitcher better set up for the modern extra-innings rule than Aroldis Chapman, who struck out the side in a scoreless 10th. His swing-and-miss played up on a chilly night at Fenway and he got the Orioles to swing and miss six times on 13 pitches despite working a walk.
The Red Sox used eight pitchers, tying a season-high in a game (it was the fourth time). After Garrett Whitlock surrendered the winning (unearned) run in the top of the 11th, the Red Sox did not have anyone warming for a potential 12th. Struggling righty Isaiah Campbell was the only man left in the bullpen.
6) Buehler might be on thin ice when it comes to his rotation spot and it was interesting to see top Triple-A option Kyle Harrison lined up with him and pitching at Polar Park on Tuesday. After a great start in San Diego and an OK one in Houston over the last couple weeks, Buehler’s latest outing was a step back.
The righty worked through constant traffic, allowing four hits while issuing four walks. It was his shortest outing since June. Buehler has now walked 32 batters in his last 51 innings (10 starts). His next start is tentatively scheduled for Monday in Baltimore.
7) To open the scoring, Wong successfully baited O’s righty Tomoyuki Sugano with some aggressive baserunning. On third with two outs, Wong tried to distract Sugano with a fake dash toward home plate… and it worked. Sugano balked and Wong scored.
8) That was just about the only early offense that came from a different-looking Red Sox lineup that had no Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela or Carlos Narváez. Sox batters led off the first three innings with singles but were able to get just one run out of the threats.
9) Fenway Park is an old building with a fire alarm that goes off monthly, if not more. The game usually goes on without interruption. That was not the case when reliever Jordan Hicks noticed the alarms in the eighth inning and the umpiring crew huddled to see what was going on. After a delay of a few minutes, play resumed.
10) A five-game homestand for a Red Sox team that has dominated at Fenway for months seemed like an opportunity to stack some wins. But three straight losses made it an uninspiring handful of games for a team that hasn’t faltered much in the last few weeks. Interestingly, the Sox are below .500 (4-5) against the last-place Orioles this year. They’ll close the season series with them at Camden Yards for four games next week.
11) In a development far more important than anything that happened in the game, the Red Sox announced that for the first time ever, the WEEI-NESN Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon surpassed $5 million in contributions.
You can add to that total here.
12) The Red Sox have a rare Wednesday off day before starting a crucial four-game series in the Bronx on Thursday night. Here’s the schedule (with tentative pitching probables):
Thursday, 7:15 p.m. ET (FOX) — RHP Lucas Giolito (8-2, 3.63 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Gil (1-1, 5.14 ERA)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. ET (NESN) — RHP Brayan Bello (9-6, 3.23 ERA) vs. LHP Max Fried (13-5, 3.26 ERA)
Saturday, 1:05 p.m. ET (NESN) — LHP Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.43 ERA) vs. RHP Will Warren (7-5, 4.25 ERA)
Sunday, 7:10 p.m. ET (ESPN) — RHP Dustin May (7-9, 4.59 ERA) vs. LHP Carlos Rodón (12-7, 3.25 ERA)
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