SEATTLE — The Red Sox held a two-run lead entering the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday but closer Kenley Jansen was unavailable due to back tightness.
Manager Alex Cora instead gave Joely Rodriguez the save opportunity and Boston lost 4-3 to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
“A tight back,” Cora said. “He came in today. He felt really tight. He moved around and we decided not to use him today.”
Jansen said it’s the same back tightness he dealt with late in spring training.
“I just woke up with a bad back again today,” Jansen said. “Nothing I can do about it. … Tried to get ready but it wouldn’t allow me. So you’ve gotta be smart. If I go out there and aggravate it, then it could be worse for a week or two. So I’d rather miss one day or two so I can be back.”
He said his back felt worse during spring training.
“It’s not as worse … but still, I don’t think it’s smart to just go out there and pitch today and then I’ll be down for two weeks,” Jansen said. “So just take a day.”
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Jansen recorded the save in the opener Thursday.
“It’s frustrating,” Jansen said. “What can I do? You go to bed, you wake up in the morning and have a bad back. You try to ramp it up and it’s not allowing you to. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Why did Cora use Rodriguez in that situation?
Rodriguez is the only left-handed pitcher on Boston’s 26-man roster. Seattle had two left-handed hitters, Luke Raley and Josh Rojas, due up. It also had left-handed hitter J.P. Crawford due up fourth.
“That was a great pocket for him,” Cora said. “A jam shot over the third baseman. Out-in-front base hit. Contact play. They put the ball in play and found holes. Obviously we’d love to work ahead in the count. That’d be better. But the quality of the contact wasn’t great. So bad luck.”
Raley’s jam shot had just a 62.2 mph exit velocity and went 183 feet to left field. It scored the automatic runner to cut it to 3-2.
Right-handed hitter Luis Urías was the only batter Rodriguez retired. He lined out hard to second.
Rojas then stroked an RBI single to right field. Wilyer Abreu made an error, allowing Raley to advance to third base and Rojas to second. Abreu charged in and overran the ball.
“There’s no rush there,” Cora said. “Just catch the ball and throw to second. He missed it. He’s a good defender. Just one of those.”
Crawford hit a 53.3 mph grounder to second baseman Enmanuel Valdez who threw to home plate late. Raley scored to tie it.
Cora replaced Rodriguez with righty Justin Slaten who was making his big league debut. With runners on the corners and one out, Slaten gave up the game-winning single to Julio Rodriguez.
