MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It all unraveled for the Red Sox during the seventh inning Friday when catcher Reese McGuire made a throwing error and reliever Naoyuki Uwasawa’s pitch clock violation with the bases loaded forced in a run.
The Red Sox lost 5-2 to the Twins here at Target Field. Minnesota has won 11 straight games.
Red Sox starter Tanner Houck allowed just one run over the first six innings. He returned for the seventh inning at 90 pitches. He gave up back to back singles to Trevor Larnach and Carlos Santana to begin the frame.
Willi Castro then laid down a sac bunt in front of home plate. Instead of going for the sure out at first base, catcher Reese McGuire threw to second base. His errant throw went into center field and pinch runner Austin Martin scored to make it 2-0 Twins.
“We needed him (Houck) to go deep into the game coming from yesterday’s game and tomorrow knowing where we’re at with the bullpen game,” manager Alex Cora said. “I mean yesterday was a bullpen game, too. That’s what the good ones do. When you need innings, he goes out there. And it’s not like he just gave us innings. He gave us a chance to win. We didn’t make a play there on the bunt. If we get that out, we’re one pitch away and it’s probably his game right there (to continue). But at that point, so many pitches and obviously thinking about him, we went another route.”
Cora said McGuire was right to throw to second base for the force-out there.
“He’s out by a mile. He just threw it away,” Cora said.
Uwasawa walked the bases loaded, then got a 4-2 force-out for the first out. But Uwasawa walked in a run on a pitch clock violation down 3-1 in the count to Edouard Julien. Ryan Jeffers followed with a two-run double off Uwasawa to make it 5-0.
Uwasawa went 2 innings, helping save the bullpen for Saturday when Boston will start opener Brennan Bernardino.
“He pitched two innings yesterday,” Cora said about Uwasawa. “So what he did today, that’s big league stuff. Understanding that we needed bullets there to save the bullpen, to save the staff for tomorrow, that’s what guys do. He has a good fastball, a good split. Just the pitch violation put him in a bad spot. Jeffers has been hot. But I think he threw the ball well.”
