MILWAUKEE — The 2025 season turned exactly two months old Tuesday, and the Red Sox still haven’t figured out the answer to a major problem: how to produce with runners in scoring position.
At times, the issue is merely frustrating. But on Tuesday night, it helped produce one of the team’s most ghastly losses of the season.
On a night in which a spot starter and half the bullpen tossed eight shutout innings, the Red Sox went into the ninth with a 1-0 lead. That lead was erased in bottom of the ninth before the Brewers erupted for four more in the 10th, with a Christian Yelich grand slam off Liam Hendriks serving as the big blow in a 5-1 victory.
And while it might be tempting to blame the bullpen — closer Aroldis Chapman suffered his first blown save in the ninth — the truth is, the Sox should never have been clinging to such a tenuous late-inning lead in the first place.
The Red Sox were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, a day after they were 1-for-9 with RISP. For the season, they’re hitting just .238, ranking them 21st in MLB.
The opportunities were certainly there. The Red Sox had first-and-second with one out in the second against starter Aaron Civale and didn’t score. In the fifth, a leadoff double from rookie Marcelo Mayer was wasted when Mayer tried to advance on a flyout to shallow right.
The only run they mustered all night, in fact, came courtesy of Milwaukee reliever Aaron Ashby, whose wild pitch enabled Ceddanne Rafaela to score from third in the sixth.
“We’ve got to be better,” said Cora. “The margin for error..it’s hard to win games 1-0 and we didn’t do a good job with that. We have to recognize what’s in front of us and do a better job.’’
Perhaps the worst was saved for last. In the 10th, with the game tied 1-1, the Sox had Trevor Story as the automatic runner on second, Abraham Toro moved him to third with a grounder to the right side, and as unexpected bonus, reached safely when the Brewers flubbed the exchange between first baseman Jake Bauers and reliever Grant Anderson.
With runners at the corners, the Sox had several chances to go ahead again and rescue a game that they had handed over an inning earlier. But Rafaela and Jarren Duran both fanned and Rafael Devers ended the threat with a flyout to left.
Eventually, the bullpen broke.
The team’s inability to produce the big hit when it’s needed most has been an issue for nearly the entire first third of the schedule. It’s one of the biggest reasons why the team is a dismal 6-14 in games decided by a run.
It’s hardly a stretch to suggest that, with a few well-timed hits here and there, the Red Sox could easily have themselves another handful of wins and their place in the standings would look far different.
As it was, Tuesday’s loss was also the sixth walkoff defeat of the season, yet another number that, in part at least, reflects the team’s inability to expand leads earlier in games, and/or produce the most timely hit in late-inning situations.
“We’re always trying to bring the run in when we have someone in scoring position,” said Rafaela. “It’s not like we don’t want to not bring them in. We do our best, and sometimes it happens and sometimes it (doesn’t).”
The task will not get any easier in the coming weeks, with the Sox without Alex Bregman in the third spot in the lineup. Before he suffered a strained quad last Friday night, Bregman was among the team’s few successful hitters with runners in scoring position, with an .811 OPS.
Bregman’s absence will also place more pressure on Rafael Devers, who no longer has the veteran third baseman to offer protection in the next spot in the order.
The top of the lineup will be under more scrutiny than ever before, as the bottom half of the order is filled with either rookies (Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer) or players unaccustomed to playing everyday roles in the big leagues.
