Nate Eovaldi needed more than three weeks off after his best start of the season thanks to a balky calf. He needed only six pitches to fall behind on Saturday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., his return the start of a back-and-forth affair, but ultimately loss that cemented the 2020 Boston Red Sox as a sub-.500 team.
Tampa Bay’s Brandon Lowe crushed a 431-foot home run off Marcus Walden in the seventh inning, giving the AL-East leading Rays back the lead and a 5-4 victory at Tropicana Field.
The Red Sox (16-31) twice answered Tampa leads and did put the tying run on second base in the ninth when Yairo Munoz hit a two-out, ground-rule double off Diego Castillo, but Michael Chavis grounded out to third to end it.
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Observations from the game:
⋅ Eovaldi came off the injured list Saturday and wasn’t sharp, allowing a leadoff home run to Austin Meadows, but settled in during his three innings of work, striking out four and not walking a batter. Because he just came off the IL, the plan all along was for him to just pitch two or three innings.
When Chris Mazza entered in the fourth, the Sox lost hold of a 2-1 game after Mazza allowed three runs on an RBI single by Nate Lowe and a Manuel Margot double that scored two.
⋅ Chavis has largely been summed up through two different lenses: A hot start when he was called up as a rookie, and a downward spiral once the league adjusted. Chavis’s career will largely be determined by his adjustments.
When Chavis was called up last April, he started on a tear, batting .262 with 10 homers through May. From May through the end of the season, Chavis hit just .248 with eight homers. With massive power came a massive hole in his swing at the top of the strike zone.It’s carried over to this season. Chavis has a whopping 75-percent strikeout rate at pitches high and in, and a 50-percent rate on pitches middle-high and high and outside.
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Tyler Glasnow tried to challenge Chavis high and in Saturday, but Chavis wasn’t fooled this time, tagging it for a solo shot to knot the game at one in the third. It was his first homer since Aug. 5.
He entered batting .228 this season, but was at .320 in his last seven games. With the Red Sox out of a playoff spot, Chavis is getting a ton of playing time, giving him a chance to figure it out.
⋅ The Red Sox stole six bases against Glasnow, the most stolen bases in a game by any team this season. Glasnow, at 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds, has a long and lanky build. He was extremely slow to the plate and the Sox took advantage of it.
The Red Sox scored their second run in the fourth. Xander Bogaerts stole second, the first of two for him in the game, and Kevin Plawecki knocked him in with a single to center. In the seventh, Jackie Bradley stole second — his second of the game — and Christian Arroyo belted a two-run shot that tied the game, 4-4, on Glasnow’s 101st (and second-to-last) pitch.
⋅ Heading into the bottom half of that frame, the Sox looked as if they had gained some control of the contest. Marcus Walden recorded the first two outs, but on a 1-and-1 pitch, left a fastball over the heart of the plate. One that Lowe barreled to right-center for a solo shot, which ultimately ended up being the deciding factor.
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Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack
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September 13, 2020 at 08:24AM
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