An old flaw reared its ugly head on Saturday as the Boston Red Sox lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Boston’s defense has improved from the start of the season, but errors sank the ship to give the Red Sox their third straight loss.
They were only charged with one error on the evening, but two plays jumped out as game-changing. Lucas Giolito wasn’t sharp on the day, putting traffic on the bases in seemingly every inning, but only two of the four runs he allowed were earned.
In the bottom of the second inning with one out and the bases loaded, Giolito induced a ground ball up the middle. Trevor Story charged it, but it deflected off his glove and rolled into center field, scoring two runs. With Jake McCarthy running, it might have been a difficult double play to turn, but it should have resulted in at least one out. The Diamondbacks hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning, scoring a third run.
Later on, with the score 4-1, Blaze Alexander hit a fly ball to deep left field. Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela seemingly had a breakdown in communication, causing the ball to fall for a double, scoring another run.
The game didn’t consist entirely of poor defense, though. In the fifth inning, Rafaela made an incredible leaping catch to rob a home run, leaving cleat marks in the outfield wall in the process. Alexander matched it with a robbery of his own, stealing a home run from Alex Bregman.
Story continues below advertisement
While defense was the focus, the offense didn’t do enough to win the game. Over the course of the game, they left six runners on base and only managed to score one run through the first seven innings of the game. The Red Sox have scored just 51runs in their last 13 games, 21st in baseball over that span.
The Red Sox will try to avoid a sweep on Sunday in the series finale before heading to Sacramento for a series with the Athletics.
